Noob in need of help
 

Recently got a Kyosho Inferno GT2 for my birthday. Got it broken in, broke a couple minor pieces, fixed them and a half a tank later, it decided to scream at full speed into a curb by itself. I assumed that the batteries died in either my controller or the car's receiver so after a week of waiting for shiny new aluminum bits to fix all I broke I got the car up and running again last night. So this morning I filled her up and changed all my batteries and after a minute or two I noticed that the throttle and steering were.....shakey? For shits and giggles I changed the receiver's batteries again. It seemed okay for about 5 minutes then it cut all control over the car and ran away. Luckily it didn't careen at full throttle into anything this time.

So this is my dilemma. Out of you all's plethora of knowledge, what would it most likely be that's causing my expensive little car to refuse all control? Is it the factory servos or should I be looking for something more along the lines of my controller or receiver? Any info will be greatly appreciated.

First of all i'd put a return spring on that throttle, so if your batteries die the the throttle returns to an idle and not wide open and get some good rechargeable batteries also for the radio and the receiver

Welcome to GT racing!

The Kyosho GT2 is a great car and once you replace some of the troublesome items on the car I think you will find that you have a great time with the car. I too own and race a Kyosho GT 2 and here are some of the things I found that make the car unreliable;

1) the on board car battery holder has a tendency to make intermittent electrical contact at higher RPMs. This resulted in my car hitting the curb at high speed and it sounds like that may have also happened to you. I replaced the battery back with a rechargeable NICAD pack.

2) the transmission strips 2nd gear. Kyosho makes a high performance replacement transmission KYIGW008 that completely corrects this problem.

3) The brakes will fade after you run the car for while - I replaced the brake pads with KYIFW330. They last forever and don't fade.

4) Ipanema makes great high performance rubber tires that will dramatically help the handling of the car.

These are the things you need to do to make your car reliable and fun. If you decide you want to get involved in racing there are a few other things you will want to consider.

Lee

It came with a factory throttle return spring, however, I added a doubled rubber band to help, although with both of these, it doesn't seem strong enough to return the throttle from WOT to idle against a de-powered servo.

I have replaced all four wheels and tires, the 2nd gear with a same factory piece, and a couple hinge pins. Since the big wreck, I have now also changed the front upper and lower control arms with aluminum and 2 shocks with aluminum pieces. All the alum. pieces I bought were for the mp7.5 and everything fir perfectly minus the 95mm shocks, but after swapping the loft soft yellow spring for the factory Kyosho stiff springs, it handles great.

So, would using standard Duracel AA batteries really cause that control loss? I'm scared to drive the car now in fear that it will run away again and either destroy itself or worse, take a parked real car out with it. More advise?

Upgrading to a 5 cell rechargable reciever battery pack will add more voltage to your car's electronics than the (4) AA's and that's a good thing. :nod:

Welcome to GT! ;)

Okay, so getting a rechargeable battery pack is a good thing to do. That still just doesn't explain why the servos act erratically and intermittently stop working all together and yet work perfectly fine other times. I'll try to get a video of what's happening.

I assume you are using the AM radio.. This happened to me with my Kyosho Inferno when I hadn't raised the antenna completely..

Dont like telling ppl to spend money, but go and get a cheap spread spectrum radio and be done with AM issues.. Don't waste money on a lot of batteries etc. The 2.4 ghz digital systems that are reasonable affordable use much less power.

Could have neighbour with an am controller on the same Freqeuncy.

PS: If the system offers calibration (cant remember ) a reversed throttle servo may go full tilt..

So the factory controller....err, radio is on AM band? It did seem like interference, possibly. Due to the erratic nature. Are the lower priced radios worth buying? Just browsing I found one that caught my eye. The Kyosho Synchro or something. Well priced and seems to do more than I would ever need.

Thanks everyone for the advice and all the help. Drove through 3 tanks today until I stripped out the factory 1st gear that I didn't change when I changed the 2nd gear previously. Never had any radio issues. So what would be more worth it, Ipanama tranny, Kyosho upgrade tranny, or just metal gears?

A good mesh and ensure clutch bearings are in good order.. should be fine. We all strip spurs.

The Kyosho upgrade transmission is the way to go. I ran metal gears on my car and I was actually able to break them with regularity. The upgrade transmission will end your gear stripping problems assuming the gear mesh is correct.

Regarding the radio - I have a pro style KOPROPO radio but I wanted to prove that you did not have to upgrade from the std AM kit radio to the more expensive radio. I ran my GT2 car for 1 year with the kit radio before changing to a better radio. The kit radio will work but you stand the very real chance of someone showing up on your frequency and your car will run wild.
I suggest that you get an inexpensive DSM radio to avoid future run-aways.

Lee