PB Mini Mustang Refurb

[Dadio]

I've been looking for a PB Mini Mustang for a while and this one came up on E bay hidden by a Ferrari Testarossa body and just listed as Vintage RC Car , looks like it may be one of the ECO versions as it has plastic bushings on the diff out drives not bearings, its a single speed gearbox , looks like it was used on carpet as the axles all had a mat of fluff wrapped round them , its had a fair bit of use but no great harm come has come to it , i think the Testarossa body was on there a long time so some sort of track car maybe ? it also came with a very old ESC , the type with a relay for full speed but FET's as well , there's no identification on it and the circuit board has been fitted into a piece of mica to mount it , the same mica has been used for the rear body mount and front body mount as well as the bumper bracket .the wheels are ? i don't know but they had been fitted straight to the axle cross pin and the drive flanges are missing , up front even the drive pins are missing from the axles and a bent piece of wire was used !
The shock's seem to be in pretty good nick and still hold oil and work pretty well ! it has a Trinity Monster Horse Power motor that's also a very nice item , I'm not sure of the wind and its not written on the armature either although its a very pretty pink colour .
So far the butchers bill will be
1 front bumper and mount
2 axle drive flanges
3 rear body mount
4 bearings for diff's
5 body and wing






After a bit of a clean










If any body knows anything about the ESC I'd love to know more about it , it may even be a home brew or a build your own kit .
When I first looked at the car I noticed it had a nice pair of UJ drive shafts , I thought they looked a bit like the Brimod ones on one of Dinglem's threads but on closer inspection they are quite different but still very nicely made and cleaned up well .
With Christmas coming and me having 4 kids and 4 grand kids the budget is going to be a bit thin till new year , I have ordered diff bearings and some new drive flanges , a friend has lent me some Hot Shot wheels so I'll be able to have it running soonish .
I think I'm leaning toward a Maxima body , not sure if it will fit so if anybody knows then chip in and let me know .
I have some Kydex that I can make a bumper and bumper mount from for now and I'll hit the 3d printer for the rear body mount , I might even make up some shock towers out of GRP .

[Dadio]

The diff bearings arrived today so i fitted them and added some lube to the diffs , also changed the servo while i was there . I 3d printed some drive flanges and a spur gear cover as well , threw some borrowed Hot Shot wheels on and now she's a roller ! Here are a few pictures including the Kydex bumper and bumper mount .

[warhead3000]

Hi Bud

Great find and well done you, after my first RC car (Tamiya Hotshot), my first serious club racer was a brand new PB Maxima (which is essentially a modified updated mustang) loved racing that car and great handling but let down by its plastic parts. Many times I lost the front one way bearing drives because the plasric ball joints popped out, In addition to keeping having to strip the chassis down because the belt had slipped off due to the tensioner failing (metal screw in plastic housing).

Eventually bought a new Yokomo YZ870c (one of the first in the country) and raced with that (still have that car), but would've loved to still have that Maxima.

[Teaboy]

Nice find, and its looking good as well now youve cleaned it up. The Maxima body and undertray will fit well. The only problem you may have is the Maxima rear body / wing mount ive not seen one for sale for a long time. The wing wire is easy to bend if you do manage to find a body mount, you seem to be able to 3d print so might be able to copy one ( i may have one to borrow).

I have sold most of my PB collection in the last couple of weeks, with only my origional mini mustang i use to race in the 80's and my Maxima i use to race very early 90s left. Shame but time moves on.

Best Regards

Rich

[Dadio]

Originally Posted by Teaboy

Nice find, and its looking good as well now youve cleaned it up. The Maxima body and undertray will fit well. The only problem you may have is the Maxima rear body / wing mount ive not seen one for sale for a long time. The wing wire is easy to bend if you do manage to find a body mount, you seem to be able to 3d print so might be able to copy one ( i may have one to borrow).

I have sold most of my PB collection in the last couple of weeks, with only my origional mini mustang i use to race in the 80's and my Maxima i use to race very early 90s left. Shame but time moves on.

Best Regards

Rich

Thanks for the offer , if you could just post a couple of good pictures of the wing mount I'd be very grateful .

[Dadio]

Well i might be skint but i can still 3d print (poetry supplied free) , so i made up the quick release battery clamp , its a pretty cool feature on these cars but I'm not using it as an electrical connection , i also printed wheel hex's for 12 mm hex wheels and a rear body mount , the mount is bound to need redesigning when i know how the body fits but for now its bracing up the rear shock towers .Almost forgot i printed some shock collars as well , the rear only had the clip on adjusters , hate them , so i made some , mine also have the inner sleeve that keeps the spring held off the shock body and stop rubbing , the originals up front didn't have the sleeve and the spring rubbed annoyingly so i swapped them out as well .

[Yorkiebar]

Brilliant find! One of these was my last car before I hung my TX up in 1989 when I discovered motorbikes, beer and women.

I also couldn't bring myself to use the quick release electrical connector - one dropped screwdriver would short the pack out!

Was gonna say I've just printed out some wheel adaptors for this and the Hotshot but I see you have found them

The ESC reminds me of one I used to have, called "Electro buggy throttle" - similar dimensions as it was square and had a full chat relay. Can't for the life of me remember who manufactured it though, but it was British - and crap, the first version blew a track on the circuit board if you used a BEC! Sent it back and complained and they said they didn't realise folk used BECs - errr, yeah I love having a pack of AAs in the car too. They soon brought out a Mk.2 which didn't explode if you used a BEC. Was it M'troniks now I think on?

[Dadio]

This one comes with a big thank you to my old friend Brent who gave me the body set as a 50th birthday present , cheers mate
Its really hard to pick up in the pictures just how this sparkles , i used a metal flake clear coat under the red and blue of the body and left the white , the wing is metal flake under the white , i just could not get a picture that really picks it up .

[Dadio]

Just a few pictures of the two speed installed and a little description of its function for those who are curious .


The way it works is with a double pinion on the motor that drives two spur gears , the larger spur for low gear is fitted to a one way roller hub that drives the spindle initially.


behind this there is an expanding clutch similar to the centrifugal clutch on a lawn mower although its not a true centrifugal clutch .

this clutch comprises of two semi circular shoes that are forced outward to engage on the inner surface of a drum to transmit drive , the drum is fitted to the other smaller spur gear for the higher gear , when not driven by the clutch the drum freewheels on the spindle on plain bearings , the clutch shoes rotate with the spindle and are forced outward by ball bearings that sit half in the shoe and half in a groove cut into the edge of a central hub that's locked to the spindle , two springs and screws hold the shoes inward around the hub and help control the rpm that a gear change happens .





As the central hub is spun faster the ball bearings move from the center of the groove toward the edge forcing the shoes apart and locking them onto the inner face of the drum , as i said its not a true centrifugal clutch but one operated by a rising ramp effect that's more torque driven .
Once the clutch engages it locks the smaller spur to the spindle for the higher gear , the larger spur is now over driven and so freewheels on the one way roller bearing that it was driving with initially .

[Dadio]

I had to get a Mini Mustang body to fit over the 2 speed gearbox and i redesigned the gear cover as well to prevent dirt getting in , i was not too bothered about an open spur gear under the Maxima body but the 2 speed setup might suffer more if sand gets in .







Again it was really hard to get good pictures , the orange looks more pink than in real life and the meta flake really sparkles .