RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

I've got a Tamiya Tiger I which runs great except the elevation would always look 'rough' by getting hung up & creating a 'jerky' motion instead of a smooth ride up & down.

Consulting the internet turned up all kinds of potential fixes, all of which involved replacing the gears altogether with a new set. The blame seemed to lie with the 'faulty' or 'weak' gears of the Tamiya system.

But just by removing the turret lid & looking at the mechanism operate, it became very obvious what the problem was: the back of the metal gun mount was simply making contact with the middle 'ring' part of the metal turret support bar.



(3 'dots' above added by me) The 'rubbing' produced by this friction is what caused the uneven 'stuttering' up & down motion, and I could even see the scrape marks on the metal mount (below). This would surely wear out the elevation motor over time!



The best solution was to remove the support bar and grind it down a bit for extra clearance; not only for the flat part of the back of the gun mount but also for the two hex nuts near its sides... they too would make contact if not also remedied.



A quick sess with the Dremel produced a still-strong support bar by grinding with the original curve, instead of just cutting slots or grooves into it. The result is a still-rounded piece, but with the extra clearance needed for proper operation.



Here's a brief VIDEO to show the new smoothed-out elevation... wish I'd shot a 'before' video for comparison, but if you're reading this post then you probably already know what that looks like
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/z9mbr6n1 ... j5gd2&dl=0

I knew there had to be a better explanation than "Tamiya's gears are poor quality" - since when does Tamiya build junk? The alignment of said parts may need some adjustment but it just goes to show: don't blindly believe the 'popular' opinion!

Related post describes what switches I used to mod the Futaba 4YF's firing controls: viewtopic.php?p=380359#p380359

its really working smoothly now mate and a cool fix

Thanks Alan, and yes, "let slip the cats of war" indeed!

I have a similar issue on my KV-2. I'll have to see if this will fix it. Thanks.

Excellent to know based on my current path. Thank you for sharing.

I ran into the same elevation issue a few years back on my Tamiya Tiger. Thought it was perhaps the usual Tamiya rats nest of wires (especially the super stiff muzzle flash cable and Tamiya battle unit base wiring) and it took awhile for me to figure this out as well. Like you I just ground the ring back and the issue was fixed. At the same time I also replaced the crappy plastic e-clipped arm on the elevation mech with the aftermarket metal one with the grub screw. Since it was my first Tamiya I didn't know about the metal aftermarket ones when I first built it. Have used them ever since on every Tamiya build and still have a few left over.

Panzermechaniker wrote: ↑Tue Dec 16, 2025 3:48 pm At the same time I also replaced the crappy plastic e-clipped arm on the elevation mech with the aftermarket metal one with the grub screw. Since it was my first Tamiya I didn't know about the metal aftermarket ones when I first built it. Have used them ever since on every Tamiya build and still have a few left over.

Panzermechaniker, can you shoot me a photo or link to the arm you're describing? I'm not sure which one I have installed... thanks!

These are from the DKLM site but other sites sell them too. Just one of those simple aftermarket fixes that somehow Tamiya refused to do themselves

https://www.dklmrc.com/product/ta-un

Ah yes, thank you for that!

The other way is to use an HL elevation unit adapted to fit and link to the Tamiya system.
I did it successfully on my KT build