Cox Prop Rod

Thanks! Somehow, I'd failed to come up with that!

Some photos...









Test run perhaps this weekend... She's all ready to go. Work to date limited to polishing the wheels, restoring the gold paint on the hood (original flaked off at a touch) and a basic engine cleanup and fettle. Near mint!

Hope y'all enjoy!

J

Wow, that's a great find. Congratulations.

Man that is one nice Prop Rod , if your going to run it and can get some video please post . I have a not so nice one that needs attention to the engine mount , if I ever get around to it I want to run it , that's what I got the darn thing for Eric    

I do aim to get some video...

This is a manual from my Rod, it says the cable is 7' and I have a factory bridle that is not equal lengths on each side. One side is 6" and the other is 7.5', trying to get photo of bridle but cam went dead. The cable and bridle would give aprox 15' dia. circle.

Thanks! That's handy.

Do you know if the short leg of the bridle goes front or rear?

J

I just found another factory bridle that came in the accessory kit and it is 5.5" one side and 6" on the other, .5" difference and it looks like a much better fit with the long side to rear.
Will try to post photos when cam is working.

Welly, welly, well! Last evening, my son and I got a chance at a test run for the Prop Rod at a local tennis court. Some local youths were there playing b-ball at one end of the court, so we took the other.

Struggled to get the engine running at first. This is my first inverted installation, and I usually find myself running these engines on much cooler days. I simply had the mixture too rich to start. Eventually, I got it going!

Since this engine is virtually "brand new", I tuned it to a solid 4-cycle note and let it go. You'll see it didn't all go as planned.... Once on track, it quickly picked up speed and was soon whipping 'round on the 150" line quite well. Very soon, however, it became clear that I'd reversed the fuel pickup, and it first leaned, then starved. So a short run, but full of positives!

I'm gonna make a new line before next run, with less stretch (probably a light steel cable, rather than the surveyor's twine I used this time), get a bit handier with starting in warm weather, and we'll give'er another go.

Enjoy:

https://vid7.photobucket.com/albums/y291/JasonB1976/DSC_0859_zpsr9zzl7au.mp4

J

Awsome! And inspiring. I was just in the shop looking for the engine to my Sandblaster, it was soaking in a baggy of 30% to clean it up a little. I asked my son who builds Quadcopters out there and he just said "it's in a baggy somewhere". Great help he was. I'll have to look for it tonight and get it running this weekend. Great video with your son, very nice to see. Thanks.

They're so helpful, eh?

I have a Sandblaster too, fun little free-run rig. Nowhere near as fast as the PropRod, but well neigh un-stoppable. Especially fun on a partly frozen dirt driveway in winter... Sounds really different as the engine note responds to the varying loads as the tires skip along.

J

I ran my engine, but I remember the needle having trouble, thus the soaking. I've though of RC'ing it.

Cool !! man if she was leaned out that would really bee cutting the concrete , Thank You !! YES inspiring to get mine going . Eric

Took the prop-rod out for another rip last night, with a new tether made from 1/16" steel cable. Cable was too heavy, as it turned out...

I started the engine up (First flip, yeah!), and leaned it to the 2/4 stroke break, about 10K rpm. Still quite rich. Gave the car a launch, but it quickly tripped over its cable. Retrieved the howling beast, and launched it more firmly, this time it went well. Made a dozen or so laps before something threw things outta balance again, and it tripped up, caught the cable in the prop shedding a blade. I threw my jacket over the car to snuff the engine. No damage beyond the prop (which was sad enough, original Thimbledrome 6x3).

Now taking suggestions for a more suitable cable. The surveyors twine I used first is too stretchy. Cable was too heavy. Next?

J

How about "fishing-something"? Usually they have a pretty high load-rating and are also light. EDIT: I bought some "dyneema" fishing line for my stitch hinges, that's strong stuff, no way I could make it snap by pulling, and it doesn't really stretch either.

Another option might be dacron, as used with Cox rtf planes.

I was thinking Crank would have chimed back in , I have seen them with what looked like clothes hanger attached to them but , was thinking fishing line or even lead outs that are used on planes ? Eric http://coxengines.ca/cox-1-2a-leadout-wire-kit.html

Some good options here, thanks!

I'd looked for fishing line, but had trouble coming up with anything over 20# test for reasonable money. I'll have another boo.

The leadout wires look interesting too.... Makes me think of wire rope fishing leaders.... Gotta get me to a store better stocked with fishing gear than is Canadian Tire.

I'll also shorten my tether to about 10', as the prop rod instructions do mention possible directional issues on longer lines.

It's a damned fun little car.

J