Hey guys

Bought my first nitro monster truck and am excited as hell, well I was excited until I went to use it.
Its a smartech 1/8th with a .15 engine. By the looks of it, maybe I should have spent a few more dollars!
Anyway, started up quite easily but screamed its head off and took off down the yard. Doesnt seem to want to sit stationary (or even move slowly) or idle, just jumps into gear and bolts away . If you apply the breaks it stalls. Tried tuning it and can lower the idle, so i started it up again on a stand and the revs just keep getting higher and higher.
Any ideas as to what's going on?
Thanks guys.

Man, those Smartec (eBay) cars are literally crap. I'm not sure what engine they put in those things, but lower the engine's idle adjustment. It may have been set too high.

Cheers - will give it a go. Hey does anyone have a diagram of one of these engines - the user manual comes with bugger all.

BTW - just bought a team losi mini t, so hopefully that'll be a bit better!

With any nitro car, you have to make sure that the throttle servo horn (arm), linkage/s, throttle slide/arm and brakes are correctly setup in relation to each other. As 1 servo controls all of these things, you have to make sure that they are mechanically 'harmonious'.

With the radio gear on (transmitter & receiver) and the engine NOT running, check to see that when the throttle stick is at neutral, that the carb is at the idle position - you may find that you need to remove the airfilter to see the position of the slide. Take a look down the intake to see.

The brakes at idle should not be applied. However, as you start to move the stick backwards, the brakes should engage positively and progressively. The throttle stop screw on the carb should prevent the slide in the carb from closing any further than the correct idle speed and the linkage should use some sort of 'over-ride' - normally in the form of a spring and collet - to allow the servo to continue to operate the brakes.

Move the stick forwards, and you should see the the slide begin to open, progressively to full throttle. Make sure that the throttle servo doesn't try to turn too far in either direction, past the limits of the mechanisms it's operating. If this is the case, you either need to limit the servo's throw using ATL, EPA or ATV (see your radio's instructions) or physically adjust the linkages by using smaller horns (servo arms) to reduce throw, or bigger ones to increase throw. Also note the various holes on the horns - moving a linkage to the innermost holes on the horn reduces throw (and reduces the force acting against the servo arm) whilst moving the linkage to the outer holes increases throw (and increases the force acting against the the servo arm).

Once you know the throttle & brakes are set-up and working correctly, you can concentrate on getting the carb tuned correctly and then driving your nitro powered car.

Min Ts are a alot of fun, but don't give up on nitros - they are awesome.

Hope this helps.

Horatio