Back to Touring cars in 2026 and discovering flaws and fixes.

 Running the Alcyon II in 2026 with boosted 13.5T, many flaws of the car become apparent .

I encountered some durability issues and my proposed fixes.

1. I got my brother to machine slots into 3racing D3  17T too pulleys, so I could change the ratio from 2.3125 to 2.176. The pulleys are now 17-37. The original Kawada serrated spring pins are weak. They shear off after 3 packs, losing drive of the top pulleys. The fix for now is replacing the serrated 1.5mm lock pins with slotted spring pins. The pins are very cheap and should be stronger. I also bought 1.5mmx10 dowel pins to try if the slotted spring pins are not strong enough.

2. The ride height keeps dropping after every run, especially at the rear. I traced the problem to the kawada Sigma shocks. These are great shocks, I love them as they are easy to rebuild and easy to get zero rebound. However, there is a major weakness. Kawada uses a very thing o ring to prevent the collars from turning loose. It does a very bad job at this. After hard cornering, the springs push against the collars and spins it upwards, causing a lower ride height. The fix is simple . Install new O rings, and after setting, insert shock clips to take up the space above. I left a very small gap to ensure that it doesn't push on the collars, but this fix is very effective, I find the ride height no longer drops.

3. Since I am experimenting with a lot of different suspension pieces  and c hubs and knuckles,I just noticed my bumpsteer on the front is less than optimum. There is too much change in toe during compression. I have some solutions in mind and will test them out.

I will upload photos soon.  

 

 

 

Lost information about the alcyon

 I stumbled upon a french guy's site by accident. He found some really unheard off information about  japanese hop up company name KAI.

They had made parts for the SV-10 Alcyon and they are very unique, I have never seen these parts before.

Here is the link :

 https://www.overrc.com/news/news2013/kai_models/kai_models.html

How long has been it since my last post, jeez a little over a decade !

 My god, the last post was in late 2014. So what happened ? I gave up the alcyon II and bought a used VBC wildfire D06. Ran it a few times. Very even flex characteristics, lighweight , handled really well. But I got tired of touring and moved on to vintage buggies. 

Last year got myself an Airwolf 470 size RC helicopter. 

I met up an old friend of mine  who now has a 19year old son getting into RC touring. 

He was showing me his 7700mah lipo and I was shocked how light it was. Back in 2015 a 7700mah lipo would have been 300+ grams. 

Suddenly the gears start grinding in my head, hmm..my Kawada.

A month later I went looking for my Kawada. It was in a state of dissaray. Some parts were missing. It was setup for countersteer drift. So i decide to put it back to how it was in 2014-2015.  Bad news is the layshaft i got in there is for drift ratios, so I need to create a new layshaft. The TRF 417 gear diffs are also in bad shape and no longer available , so after some investigation found that TRF420 gear diffs can fit also. took note of parts i need like 32mm turnbuckles, some special length M3 screws, 3mm, 4mm and 5mm beairng shims, diff oil, shock oil, ordered them .

Spent  the last sunday building up cleaning  and putting back the suspension together in the Alcyon II ultimate guise. Found all my 44mm CVDs, cleaned them and regreased., shimmed the wheel bearings. Also needed new alloy 6mm thick hexes. as the 5mm ones seem too near the rear 0 offset wheels to rub slightly on the vertical part of the rear knuckle.  It took me the hole day and didnt get much done. It will take me a few weeks more . But little by little I am determined to get it back working. 

This time when I retire it again. It will retired as is it. with all parts intact. It deserves respect as it was a very important part of my life. Stay tuned.