[]({{ “/uploads/2012/12/IMG_7422-e1356105097440.jpg” | prepend: site.baseurl }})The lad has been having a bit of fun with his Losi Micro Truggy, slowly he is getting used to the throttle not being a binary thing and is learning he can pull it gently and the car goes slower. I figured maybe we could have some out doors with my Hotshot. So off we went to a local park (Broken link ~~https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Alexandra+Park+Road,+London&hl=en&ll=51.592749,-0.135119&spn=0.007665,0.01929&sll=51.528642,-0.101599&sspn=0.491254,1.234589&oq=alexan&t=h&hnear=Alexandra+Park+Rd,+London,+United+Kingdom&z=16~~), much fun was had for half an hour or so, putting a couple of batteries through it. Until I noticed it was looking a bit saggy at the front, I’m used to the front suspension being a bit pathetic but something was clearly a miss.

Upon inspection I noticed a couple of things, firstly the car was now 3 wheel driving, the front right drive shaft was missing and secondly, where the lower right suspension arm mounts onto the front gearbox was all very loose. I had noticed it take a couple of quite high speed knocks to the front, but this was a bit of a surprise. A bit of a closer look showed that the right half of the front gearbox had a nice big crack in it, as you can see from the picture over on the right! Click for a bigger one, this is the taken from underneath, you can see how big the crack is.

I am now wondering about the choice of that upgraded Sport GT (Broken link http://www.tamiyausa.com/product/item.php?product-id=53779) motor I bunged into the chassis in a moment of weakness last year, maybe the stock 540 would have been enough for #1 son 🙂  I’ve now ordered up a pair of replacement front drive shafts and the ‘G’ Parts (Broken link http://www.tamiyausa.com/product/item.php?product-id=9115191) sprue which contains both halves of the front and rear gearboxes, from Fusion Hobbies. Hopefully if it happens again it is the left side that takes a knock, not the right!