Element Trailrunner DOA - Advice please?

[skwid]

Good morning folks, apologies that this isn't Arrma related but I love this board more than others and the knowledge and community here is the best so I wanted to ask here. I got my first Element (or Associated for that matter) as I usually am an Arrma guy. I got the Trailrunner crawler for my son's Christmas and we hooked it up 2 days ago for the first time. When I connected the transmitter to the car the throttle worked but the steering worked VERY badly. The wheels turned about 1 CM to the right or left and the top portion of the IFS was flexing pretty badly. I set the remote down and the servo kind of intermittently moved left to right 3 or 4 times and just stopped. There is a pretty bad burnt plastic smell in the servo area as well. Sucks man, all my Arrma have been flawless and this is kind of a poor taste in the ol mouth region haha. Do I start by just replacing the servo? If I can fix it for $25 or so with a DS3218 or whatever then I would rather do that than have to deal with the warranty and shipping and such.

 

[Arise0185]

Did you check if the steering linkage moves freely without the servo attached?

From what you describe it sounds like something was binding (wheels not turning fully and something flexing excessively). Maybe something in the steering mechanism isn't assembled correctly?

Definitely try to troubleshoot further before throwing money at a new servo.

 

[skwid]

Did you check if the steering linkage moves freely without the servo attached?

From what you describe it sounds like something was binding (wheels not turning fully and something flexing excessively). Maybe something in the steering mechanism isn't assembled correctly?

Definitely try to troubleshoot further before throwing money at a new servo.

This is a good idea, honestly I kind of freaked and just set it back on the shelf out of sadness. I will check to see if I can freely move the wheels when I get home