Steering issue
 

I have one of the OEM - Regular bit-chars and am now having trouble with the steering. I've read a billion posts here and elsewhere about it but I just can't seem to get it cleaned up. When I originally got the car, the steering was ok, not good, not bad. I opened it up and went to work and played a bit with the steering spring and the steering was well nigh perfect upon reassembly. It ran great for a while. Then I tried to do the spring suspension mod and the poor thing hasn't been the same since. I've played with the steering spring many times since and it never seems to have ANY affect. The symptoms are VERY hard right turns (doughnuts automatically unless a little left steering is applied) and weak left turns.

I don't think the steering spring is the problem in this case. I took the spring out and held the car off the ground and played with the left and right controls. It seems the magnet assembly does not go the same distance to either side. So when I hold the right control, the assembly moves so far, but with the left control held it doesn't move quite so far. I'm wondering if this is due to uneven strengths in the electromagnets? The other possibility that occured to me is that the magnet assembly is riding up on the wheel knuckles unevenly when turning each direction.

Has anyone experienced this? I'm at my wits end after having tinkered for many hours to no avail. On a side note, when poring over these forums looking for answers I got interested in Mini-Z's and Mini-X's and have posted a question on the Mini-X forum asking for advice moving into a more serious RC domain.

Thanks in advance for any advice/help.

link to my Mini-X post

cdog4w, first of all welcome to the Forums! As far as your steering problem, do both wheels spin freely?

wheels
 

Yes, both wheels spin freely. I also remembered wondering whether or not slight alignment differences in the steering knuckles (plastic imperfection?) could also be causing problems? Though bear in mind I had perfect control for a while and lost it with no notable crash, but just disassembling and reassembling with spring suspension. Also, if the socket holes that keep the knuckle in line are too big, this could also cause some misalignment of the knuckle? Yet again this probably isn't the case as that wouldn't have changed with a disassembly.

On a side note, are the steering wires leading to the electro magnets in the legit Tomy bit chars insulated or are they just exposed copper wire as in my OEM?

Thanks for the help, hopefully I can be back in the drivers seat soon. Then on to more mods :P

The TOMYs are exposed too. How is the steering in reverse?

reverse steering
 

It steers right going forward, and also going backwards (as if I were holding right that is). Holding left I can straighten and even turn left a bit, but the right turn is way oversteered and the left way under. As I said, if I give it full gas forward it just doughnuts to the right... Heh, these things are great when they work, but man are they a pain to fix :P

kinda like a fiat...

you know that little switch thing that you can use to change the steering power or wheteveritscalled, well i know an OEM has it, not too sure about really bit char-g's but where do you have yours turned to?

I've tried setting the steerig adjustment lever from extreme to extreme. As I mentioned above, even without the steering spring installed, the steering aparatus would move further to one side than the other when a direction was pressed and held.

This one is pretty perplexing I guess. Wish it were as simple as a steering spring miscalibration. Think I might just have to buy a real bit :P

what about..."accidentily" driving it off your kitchen table, and hope it will fix itslef like some bits have strangely been known to do....maybe try this as a last resort

heh heh...maybe you should try moving your electronics around in the car. There are some exposed wire that can get tangled and do funny stuff to steering...or at least thats what the guy at kick's hobby said. it worked for me....

crossed wires
 

Good point cowfish, but I've tried poking the wires around quite a bit. I'm wondering now if it is the connection to the electro magnets. Maybe one side has a crappier connection due to cheap wiring and therefore can't deliver as much power to the magent? I don't think its interferance between wires since I get a very distinct left and right with no twitching, but one is just noticably stronger than the other. Any EE people reading that could confirm my above theory on electro magenet strength being the cause due to cheap wiring?

It could be interesting trying to improve the basic design of the bits (or at least the cheaper oems) so that problems of this type would be far less likely to occur. Who knows, maybe it could clean up steering even on bits that currently drive fine? Or maybe its just a $10 car :D

im not sure if it helps but while ago while i was cleaning out my car, i lost the steering spring, -_- so i went out and bouthgt a bullet, and i took the spring out of the bullet and put it in my AE86 i noticed that the steering was so bad it pulled to the right, so all i did was open up my car again and i made the spring more tight so it would center faster and stonger and when i tried steering again it was better then b4, so i guess the spring is not stong enought to center itself????

cdog4w, you mentioned that you performed a spring suspention mod. How long did you cut your springs in relation to the post they sit on? The only reason that I ask is because that when I first did this to my cars , they also wouldn't steer correctly. This is due to the springs being too long. When you cut them, If they are the same length as the post they sit on, They are too long.. Make them a little shorter, and if that doesn't work, start over and take out the springs and try that. You said that your car steered correctly at some point, So it's probably not deformed plastic knuckles. Try this and see what happens. Hope I helped.

silla

still no lovin
 

I've tried after taking the springs off and putting the stabilizer bar back on. No love tho. I did actually cut the springs pretty short (sortof on accident). I also thought it might be the springs getting in the way of the magnet assembly and effecting it since the springs I used were pretty large compared to the steering knuckle post. As I said this didn't seem to be it since I took off the springs and restored the stabilizer bar (is that bar what people call the stabilus or something of that nature?). Thanks for the continuing advice everyone.

Wow, I'm clueless at this point. Anybody elae got any ideas?

the springs shouldn't be getting in the way of the magnet at all. heh heh, when I first put my springs in I forgot to cut them down and I was totally flipping out cuz I thought my car would never turn again, but alas, I cut them and it's as bouncy as ever. try this:
1)find the copper wires underneath the chip
2)take some tape (any kind will do) and wrap the wires all the way up to the top of the connection and tape the connection in too, making sure that it's secure

the copper wires already have a really crappy type of insulater that tomy just slapped on there, so to make sure that they are really secure, you have to make your own with tape. the wires may be movinge towards the plate where the magnet is and whenever they get that magnetic shock they may be pulling the magnet down, or all sorts of crazy directions. and you may want to make sure that you do not have little metal particles underneath the stearing box, on the outside of the car. these can be picked up while racing and cause you car to do all sorts of crazy spins and make it turn every which way. *phew* you get all that?:D

Is the magnet in between centered?

I've read that if your car takes a fall, it can knock that magnet loose to one side. Re-centering the magnet and glueing it back to it's plastic encasement can fix this problem.

Just a thought, otherwise I too, am stumped!

This photo shows the magnet (silver colored) in it's proper location.

http://www.ausmicro.com/technical/bi...o/DSCN2433.jpg

Let us know how you make out. Good luck!

Jon

gonna go back to work on it :P
 

Just read over the whole thread again and I think I'm going to first try to insulate the wires as fan suggested. Then I'm going to pop the magnet off and reglue it as booty recommended. If anything, I can glue the magnet so that the steering should be equal anyway. Thanks for all your help and I'll let you know how the surgery goes.

I had a similar problem and tried EVERYTHING and stripped everything down reglued everything and nothing worked so i gave up. then my girlfriend was just gonna put it back together for me so i didnt lose anything and she noticed that under the adjustment on the bottom of the car it had picked up a shaving of steel (where i had drilled a hole in somthing way before i ever got me car) i just ran it where i was when i drilled and it picked it up and screwed my steering bad. as soon as she saw it got it out it was perfect. so maybe just give it a REALLY good looking at for metal it doesnt take a very big piece at all. just a chip

Also i would suggest the rare earth magnet mod. if it is a weaker elctromag or for some reason it is getting restricted somewhere the extra power u get from the RE might make it wrok perfectly again. At the very least you will have more responsive steering

RE mod rocks =)

Im having the same problem with my OEM and i think the problem is the spring isnt strong enough to keep the magnet from doing its own thing when you dont want it to.

I might have an idea
 

take your steering knuckles out and pull the pin out with the wheel. Then pull the wheel off and clean the pin and add some grease or oil. Also check the pin for hairs and such I notices that when fibers get wrapped on the pin that one side goes faster than another creating an effect of your car always turning one way. Clean both sides and then put it back together.

if that don't help, tell me and I have another idea

I had this problem with my bit. Everything mechanically seemed fine. I found out later that there were hairs (cat hair) stuck in the front wheels that i couldnt see at first. They were so tightly wound they were inside the wheel hole that the pins go thru. That's why i couldnt see them at first. I tried like hell to remove the pins but couldn't so i soaked my wheels and knuckles (take off the rubber first) in drano. Problem solved! Just make sure to completely rinse all remaining drano or you will not have wheels in the morning (so i've been told).