Bringing a pawn shop Talion V1 back to life

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

beewerks

Member
Messages
15
Reaction score
16
Location
Longmont, CO
Arrma RC's
  1. Talion
Hello everyone,

I posted this in the introduction area and as I dig deeper into this Talion I figured I would keep track of my progress here. I've got lots of questions!

I'm not new to the RC's but I am a newb to the Arrma world. I'm really digging what I have seen so far and am excited to see what I can make out of the truck I just got. It's Talion that is in really rough shape, but I think should be repairable. I picked it up from a pawn shop with a body, two 2s lipos, and a controller for $160.

So far apart from obvious wear to the body and rear wing, I can see that the lower front a-arm mount is busted. The steering servo has a funky horn setup on it that should be repaired, and the drive shafts are pretty worn. Non of that bugs me since parts are pretty cheap. Only thing that is slightly worrisome to me is a nice burnt electronics smell when I power it up. I'm hoping it's just the crappy servo, but it could very well be the ESC, which also looks wonky. The ESC flashes some blue lights when I power it up. I have to figure out the manufacturer of it and look up what the lights mean.

Anyway, it will be a journey, but I prefer to repair busted RCs rather than buying shiny and new.


35241

35242

35243
 
Ok, so far, I've purchased a new stock rear wing and a new Hot Racing lower front rear suspension mount. Couldn't bring myself to spend the money on the Voltage RC part though I'm sure it's superior.

The burning electronics smell seems to come mainly from the remote receiver. Could I be just lucky and have just a bad receiver, or did the ESC burn up taking the receiver with it? Hmm, time will tell as I check further.

I also dug into the battery wiring and verified that the solder joints going to the Dean connectors are awful, so I'll have to get those fixed. What is the most popular plug style to go with? I can get adapters to go to the batteries.

35245


35244

35246


Someone got fancy with the lower front rear suspension mount. Gotta love it!

35247
 
Looks like you scored a good deal there, I always wanted a V1/2 Talion and was saddened when they came out with the V3(I personally think the V3/4 look like poo). The V1/2 Talion was a real Truggy not whatever the heck it is now.
For battery connectors I would go either XT90s or EC5 both are great connectors and far far superior to Deans/T Plugs.
That motor should be great but I would ditch that BLX180 esc fo sho before it goes up in flames, you can buy a BLX185 here https://jennysrc.com/collections/ar...s-speed-control-talion-senton-typhon-ar106018
 
Looks like you scored a good deal there, I always wanted a V1/2 Talion and was saddened when they came out with the V3(I personally think the V3/4 look like poo). The V1/2 Talion was a real Truggy not whatever the heck it is now.
For battery connectors I would go either XT90s or EC5 both are great connectors and far far superior to Deans/T Plugs.
That motor should be great but I would ditch that BLX180 esc fo sho before it goes up in flames, you can buy a BLX185 here https://jennysrc.com/collections/ar...s-speed-control-talion-senton-typhon-ar106018

Thanks for the connector and replacement ESC recommendation. I'll most likely do that since I'm missing a fan anyway. Looking around on eBay I have found several BLX185s available. Many come with a motor for not much more. Is there anyway of testing a motor to see if it works without using the ESC?
 
Poor thing looks like it's been run hard, and put up wet, many, many times. But you can make it live again! Jenny's is your friend!:)
 
Thanks for the connector and replacement ESC recommendation. I'll most likely do that since I'm missing a fan anyway. Looking around on eBay I have found several BLX185s available. Many come with a motor for not much more. Is there anyway of testing a motor to see if it works without using the ESC?
If that is the BXL180 esc it is a ticking time bomb, they are notorious for going up in flames. That's why I suggested the BLX185.
They do make a motor tester, but other than that I do not know how to test without the esc.
 
So I'm ready to buy a new ESC for the truck, but I've read a few stories about the BLX185 that are worrisome. Is there a different ESC that is highly regarded here? I've been searching through the forums and will continue looking.
 
At the price you paid, unfortunately, you'll wind up with close to the cost of a new one, "IF" you start replacing things with newer things. The Max6 goes for around $150, so now you're already up to around $300 in the truck. Add some new tires, maybe a motor and or receiver, and the cost goes up. It's a very addictive hobby, but lot's of fun. In my opinion, a lot more fun building one up, than just taking one out of the box, and going from there. I just recently bought a brand new Arrma Typhon V3 from a guy on this forum, for $375 including shipping! Just saying.:)
 
At the price you paid, unfortunately, you'll wind up with close to the cost of a new one, "IF" you start replacing things with newer things. The Max6 goes for around $150, so now you're already up to around $300 in the truck. Add some new tires, maybe a motor and or receiver, and the cost goes up. It's a very addictive hobby, but lot's of fun. In my opinion, a lot more fun building one up, than just taking one out of the box, and going from there. I just recently bought a brand new Arrma Typhon V3 from a guy on this forum, for $375 including shipping! Just saying.:)

Yeah, I'm trying to keep that in consideration as well. The Max6 sounds good, but it's about twice the price of a BLX185. Perhaps the BLX185 is good enough to start with, I just hate buying an ESC that may be a bottle neck in the future.
 
So I'm ready to buy a new ESC for the truck, but I've read a few stories about the BLX185 that are worrisome. Is there a different ESC that is highly regarded here? I've been searching through the forums and will continue looking.
$65 buys a brand new one from a kit breaker like Jennys. Like @cootertwo said, it won't take much to get your $160 buy, into the same cost as a new one. Here's links to two kit breakers. Jennys has their own site, plus ebay. Their ebay site tends to be more up to date.
http://www.ebaystores.com/Jennys-RCSports
https://jennysrc.com/search?type=product&q=Arrma
https://www.ebay.com/str/rcparts4you/Arrma/_i.html?_storecat=28594088018
 
I got a BLX185 from Jenny's, that I put in a Red Cat Shredder, that I converted to 6S, with a Leopard motor, and so far, it is working fine. Can't beat it for $65 in my opinion :)
 
Looks like you scored a good deal there, I always wanted a V1/2 Talion and was saddened when they came out with the V3(I personally think the V3/4 look like poo). The V1/2 Talion was a real Truggy not whatever the heck it is now.
For battery connectors I would go either XT90s or EC5 both are great connectors and far far superior to Deans/T Plugs.
That motor should be great but I would ditch that BLX180 esc fo sho before it goes up in flames, you can buy a BLX185 here https://jennysrc.com/collections/ar...s-speed-control-talion-senton-typhon-ar106018
This, 100%!

Had a v1 Talion, it was a wonderful truck.
 
Alrighty, took a while for all of the parts to arrive to make this Talion run again. I installed the following parts:

Hot Racing front-lower-rear arm mount
BLX185 ESC
Arrma Talion rear wing
Turnigy Heavy Duty 5000mAH 3S 60C Lipos
XT90 to EC5 adapters
Servo horn from my LHS
Muddy Green Baja Bug body from eBay

I re-greased all of the differentials but was surprised to see that they didn't look to bad to begin with. The following pictures show what it looked like before I took it on it's first bashing run.

36863

36864

36865


First experience driving, WOW! That's all I can say. The power and speed is incredible and it drives great even with the worn linkages and such. Definitely pleased with it. On the down side, I only was able to drive it for about 15 minutes till stuff started to break. The Proline Hole Shot tires ballon pretty badly and at one point the front started un-glueing from the wheels. The the next thing is I lost one of the grub screws holding the front diff gear to the driveshaft. I got some more on order already so no biggie. I'll be lock-tighting that bad boy. The last thing which I was disappointed with (not the trucks fault) was a cracked wheel. I'm not sure what I hit and I wasn't jumping it either. I might try to fix the wheel, but I doubt it will run right anymore.

What are some good wheels and tires that you guys would recommend? Maybe some stock Kraton wheels and tires?

36867
 
Nice work @beewerks! Looks great as a buggy. I think if you pull that piece on the wheel up, Gorilla tape it in place, and add a bit of CA glue between the rim and tire, you can probably still get a lot of good runs out of it. Do not underestimate the strength of Gorilla tape. I thought it was the same as the silver duct tape we commonly use, but it's not. I did the inside of my Outcast body with it, and it's holding up way better than any shoe goo and fiber glass drywall taping I've done in the past. Even used it to tape a safety pin to hold my home made dust cover on the bottom of the chassis. Dust cover disintegrated by the end of the run, but the safety pin was stuck and untouched under the Gorilla tape
 
The problem with those tires is they were meant to be run on 6s power.
 
Old Thread: Hello . There have been no replies in this thread for 90 days.
Content in this thread may no longer be relevant.
Perhaps it would be better to start a new thread instead.
Back
Top