My 80's Vintage Cars - need help
#1

Hey gang
New to the forum. Use to race off road way back in the day 80's and early 90's. I've 3 cars I recently re-aquired which were left at my parents. I have them now.
They are
Losi JRx2
SuperDog Figther
and The Fox.
I'd post photos but still building my forum privileges.
I hope this is ok to ask in this thread but any idea of how much these might be worth?
Thanks!
New to the forum. Use to race off road way back in the day 80's and early 90's. I've 3 cars I recently re-aquired which were left at my parents. I have them now.
They are
Losi JRx2
SuperDog Figther
and The Fox.
I'd post photos but still building my forum privileges.
I hope this is ok to ask in this thread but any idea of how much these might be worth?
Thanks!
#2
Tech Initiate

Your best bet is to checkout ebay and facebook marketplace. That Yokomo is easily worth the most, then the Losi, then the Tamiya.
#4

#5

Should I even attempt to turn them on or charge the batteries?
I know with some vintage computers which have sat for years the capacitors may have gone bad.
The cars all have novak controllers etc.
(wish I could post pics, not yet it seems)
Thanks for the input so far!
I know with some vintage computers which have sat for years the capacitors may have gone bad.
The cars all have novak controllers etc.
(wish I could post pics, not yet it seems)
Thanks for the input so far!
#7

For my LXT and Dominator, I did buy modern budget ESCs cause the originals were long gone. They still have their motors and servos though.
For the batteries, I didn’t bother trying to charge old NiCads. (Although I did dig up a couple Tekin chargers recently. I might try charging the batteries.) Instead, I made adapter plates for Lipos. This is an example for my Dominator. (My RC10LSS has something similar)
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4755721
Just have to be careful to not run down the batteries too much. Old ESCs don’t have voltage cutoffs, or cutoffs set for lipos, like modern ESCs.
#9



#10

Just for the heck of it, I checked for voltage and 5 out of 6 packs still had ~2.4V.
So I threw one of them on a charger (modern one, not an old Tekin) and it took a charge! Only charged it at 1A for ~40mins, so it wasn’t a full charge, but it did light up a 12v automotive bulb well. (Old school discharge fixture
) Might have to try running a few cycles threw them and see what kind of capacity is left. These batteries haven’t been charged in 20+ years.


It was quite the process:
- Fast discharge with multiple automotive bulbs
- slower discharge on a smaller tray with a single automotive bulb
- slowest discharge, in a tray that took each individual cell down to 0 using a small LED and a resistor (may be able to dig these things out of my really old box of stuff for particulars, however I remember they were made by trinity)
- Once each cell in a pack registered at 0.000 volts I would short the entire pack with a tiny gauge wire (28-30 ga)
Also sorry for bringing a post back from the dead.