This was the 3rd nitro RC that i owned, found it for a screaming deal on ebay (was right around 150$ iirc) back in 2008-9, only had a few months and few runs before i got out of the hobby.
initially i thought it was the standard Losi LST (1), which i had thought until i recently got back into the hobby. i have since learned that this is an LST1 with the Losi LST Performance kit offered for it to convert to LST2 spec parts, including axles, arms, hub carriers, aluminum clutch shoes, etc. and had muggy wheels and tires.
my hiatus was very abrupt so ARO and all that fun stuff was not added, and they pretty much went from running right to the shed and sat for over 10 years, luckily had removed all batteries etc. nothing electrical really ended up being bad. (except for the batteries themselves.)
i tore this thing down quite a bit to clean and make sure that everything was in working order before running, for some reason im alot more "nit-picky" with this truck than my MGTs, try keeping the truck almost spotless, and in tip top shape whenever possible.
upon disassembly for cleaning many of the 4-40 flathead screws ended up getting stripped, which given they are 1/16" in size hex, and having the "L" wrenches which are terrible in their own right, doesnt surprise me almost all of them i was trying to remove stripped. i did learn though a T7 torx but seems to work well in place of the the allen, have since purchased a dynamite 1/16" hex driver and am loving it!!!
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Got a FOC for the truck, and have a chassis brace in the mail. (Mine is not broken, but I had been reading the cast aluminum is prone to cracking). Got some aluminum plate that I need to cut up to make a skid, wanting to do the full skid as well for protecting servos.
God i hate how losi used 1/16 Allen's for everything exposed on the bottom... anything into metal and the screws was stripped instantly, found a thread where they put 3mm screws instead that I may try. The screw into the bevel gear in the tranny was a joke too... really wasn't as much weight as I though that was removed with the foc.
i did not do the gear flip mod, this thing is fast enough for me as it is.
Side note: there is so much dust on this thing...
Will never let them sit like that for as long as I did unkempt.
Kind of thinking the original owner barely had it broken in before sold, given the lack of scratches and almost none of the screws have been removed besides what I have, not even tooling marks in screw heads anywhere.
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well, learned something new today about the LST, the indent in the bottom of the fuel tank above the rear servo mount is for the 4x AA battery holder, that most RTRs come with stock. its really strange because from what i can tell from pics, it still came with the flat pack mount plate on the bottom of the chassis.
anyways thought was interesting.
so strange getting into a certain truck while not having really info going into it and realizing all the tid bit features.
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Well finally was able to take the truck out!
Have to say... oh my God is this thing fast! Wasn't able to get the tuning dialed in though, lsn is still pretty rich so it has a high hanging idle, not enough for it to try spinning the tires but just about, then after a few seconds it drops back down to where i want it. Was helping a friend tune his at the same time, and it started getting dark.
Kind of hard to run it down the street because it's pretty narrow and once it shifts to second tries pulling a wheel up if I'm not carefull.
also forget how aggressive the brakes are, going to have to get used to that, my MGT has good solid brakes, but i accidentally did a perfect front flip the first time trying to stop!
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was running into issues. typically it started pretty easy, but kept on not feeding fuel correctly.
pulled off the tank and going to seal up the primer button.
symptoms of running not right:
started fine after priming, blip throttle a few times while stationary-> after a about 15-30 seconds of idling and blipping will cut out and die. have to re-prime the fuel to the carb, (can see air bubbles building right outside the carb).
after re-prime-> will fire up quickly then burn through fuel and repeat of above.
few tries of this and slowly working the throttle to keep it running able to run it a few circles.
while running those circles-> high idle and or idle hangs.
cuts out after a minute or two of running around with above symptoms, idle drops to normal then cuts out after a few seconds-> again air bubbles before carb.
ended up pulling the tank, and removing the primer button, re-routed/replaced the fuel lines, replaced exhaust gaskets, replaced all o-rings in the carb and has since seemed to work just fine and all were definitely needed. carb o-rings were definitely bad
while doing all the above i noticed that my spur gear had one chipped tooth, was still running alright but ordered 2 sets anyways just to have them on hand.
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got the o-ring kit and the exhaust coupler set in today, went ahead and sealed the engine too. dont really know how necessary it was as the backplate has an o-ring, and the carb has dual o-rings.
the upper carb o-ring was definitely shot, as were the needle o-rings. were about as hard as a rock. got some green slime too to put on the new rings.
One of those weird things that my LHS actually stocks. i finally convinced them to carry ARO and Air filter oil and sold out within 2 days. (have since actualy started keeping them in stock and stock a few air filters, more variety of fuel, now just wish they would have a broader range of glow plugs.)
spur is in the mail, gonna baby this one for now until it either gives up, or new ones get in.
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got to run it again last night, still having some issues, decided to run it with 20%, seems alot more stable to tune, realized that the engine seal kit i got did not include the Idle o-ring (didnt even think about that needle when i was installing), and after a minute or two of running noticed i was noticing some fuel seeping through it. For now made another O-ring work, as it was also really stiff, but ordering another seal kit to put the right one in. burned through my 30% so I'm swapping everything back to 20%.
on dirt was getting 2nd gear wheelies not even at full throttle, the power out of this mach .26 is insane, just wish wasn't having all these problems with it, but thats not the engines fault at all, only myself to blame.
this ended up gettin the rest of the problems sorted.
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was able to get some good run time, that day ended in a wheel nut flying off, luckily found it and re-installed, but didnt have the 17mm socket.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45gFQq_DAcE&feature=emb_title
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tN3-WBldG20&feature=emb_title
so far still stock on almost everything on this one, have since gotten another LST1 "KIT", pretty much plastic bags of parts. the end goal plan is to swap everything LST1 to the one chassis keeping it as original as possible (LST1), and on the other build it up to be a more major basher.
either that or just leave the 1.5 and eventually swap the newer (older) LST to LST2 Spec as well.
it still blows me away to this date the power the Mach .26 generates.