First and foremost I want to say "Thank You!" to everybody that responded. I REALLY appreciate you all taking the time to help get me educated.
To give a little more info.....yes, it has the original gear diff. and aluminum ladder chassis. I did upgrade it originally to the gold shocks, new shock mounts, etc. The Tamiya plugs were cut off and Anderson Power Poles installed as soon as they were available. There is a TON of extra parts in my "misc." box, so I can keep it going awhile.
I think I'll pull off the Trinity motor and install the old one as that was when the problems really started. I'll keep my eyes on the "for sale" area (I have seen quite a few good deals in there) and get a good used buggy with "almost new" electronics. The Ultima will be there whenever I get an "itch" to run it.
It will be nice not to have to put 8 AA batteries in my transmitter
.
The buddy I mentioned before is an AE fellow and built a gold pan RC10 when I built my Ultima. We ran against each other for years. His RC10 did not survive the many moves over the years which is why he built an RC10B4.2 last year when I pulled out my Ultima. I just need to make sure he doesn't run away from me in the future.
Thanks again everybody!
NCDaveD