How-To: Properly set the gear mesh.

One of the first things you will notice about the Mini-T is that the stock shocks have absolutely zero dampening power. I realized this the first time i ramped the little car in my basement and it bottomed out. After a few stunts, suddenly the car wouldn't move and made a loud whining noise when I pulled the trigger. As it turned out when it bottomed out, it moved the engine slightly and the gears weren't meshing.

As a newbie fix - I opened the cover that contains the pinion and spur gear and pushed the engine all the way up and tighened down the screws.....THIS IS WRONG. Yes, after doing so, the car ran, but it made a god awful racket when pulling the throttle, the noise was the two gears rubbing too much.

After a bit of research, i found the right way to solve the problem, and how to properly set the gear mesh here [losi.com].

The solution for properly setting the gear mesh between the pinion and spur gear was simple! All you do is put a peice of paper in between the two gears, push the engine against it, and then tighten down the screws, remove the paper and bob's yer uncle! (See the video for precise steps)

How-To: Install Ball Bearing Upgrade (Wheels and Hubs)

The installation of the ball bearing upgrade was pretty straight forward....well once you figure out how to do it, that is! :)

**I'm hoping at some point I can get pictures to post with these steps. But unfortunately I didn't take any pics as I did the upgrade.

Front Wheels:

1. Use the wrench which came with the Mini-T and unscrew the wheel nut on one of the front wheels.

2. The wheel should come off and inside both sides of the wheel, you will find a little black plastic bushing.

3. Use a small screw driver and "poke" out the little bushings from the opposite side of the wheel, they should come out pretty easily.

4. Replace the 2 bushings you removed, with 2 ball bearings. You will need a way to push these in, I found that if I use the side of the wrench that came with the mini-t, it works perfectly for this.

5. Put the wheel back on, and tighten the nut. *Note don't overtighten the nut, the wheel should spin freely.

6. Perform these steps on the other front wheel.

Rear Wheels:

1. Using the wrench that came with the Mini-t, remove the wheel nut on one of the rear wheels.

2. Remove the wheel. *Note there are no bushing in the rear wheel, they are in the wheel hub.

3. In order to remove both of the bushings from the wheel hub, you will need to disconnect the rod end from the ball stud on the hub. How do you do this? Just take a small slotted screwdrive, and pry it off, it should pop off with a little force.

4. Now you can remove the drive pin from the axle and the wheel hub should now be able to flip down so you can replace the bushings with bearings. **Note the axle and dogbone will come off, don't lose them or the drive pin - or you will have to make a trip to the hobby shop!

5. Once you have replaced the bushings, you can now reverse the steps and put it all back together.

6. Perform these steps on the other rear wheel.

Losi Mini-T: How to install batteries

I can hear the cohort laughing now! "This guy is writing a How-To on battery installation!" they will shout! Yes, it might seem silly, but for the utter R/C newb like myself - it took me a good 15 minutes, just to figure out how the heck to install 4 dry-cell batteries into the darn thing! To hell with manuals, I say! In my defense, I had a 3-year old climbing all over me, and explaining to me that I was in the process of breaking my new toy car so I totally overlooked the "Getting Started" guide on the back of the Price List/Exploded View.

So, to start off this blog right - here goes nothing.

**NOTE** This is a pain to do repeatedly with dry cells. After doing these steps a few times, and also wanting an increase in performance, i ended up upgrading to a recharable NiMH battery.

1. Take the 4 pins out of the top of the car, which hold the body cover in place.

2. After removing the body, disconnect the battery if it is not already disconnected.

3. Remove another pin which is located just in front of the reciever.

4. You might have to adjust some of the wires (including the antenna and antenna tube) to make enough clearance, but lift up on the place carefully to make enough room to remove the battery box.

5. Once the battery box is removed, you can pry it open and install your batteries.

6. Reverse the steps to reinstall the battery box.