Today, I discovered that there was a problem with the motor of my Stampede, but since the rear gears in my Rustler appear to be stripped out, I decided to swap motors. That meant I needed to swap the gears from the two motors also. After a little digging I found the right Allen wrench. After getting the motor swapped, I the Stampede took off. Unfortunately, after a few short minutes of running my truck around, it suddenly stopped. I thought for a moment that the battery was dead but upon inspection I found something worse. The wire that was soldered to the motor had pulled loose - and I had no idea where a soldering iron was, if I even had one anymore.
I mentioned the problem to my wife, who was happy to send me off to Lowe's to pick it up, along with some things for the bathroom that she had previously purchased but hadn't come into the store before. After returning from Lowe's, I discovered that the soldering kit, although it included multiple tips for soldering and cutting, did not include any soldering wire. So I had to make another run to the store. This time I tried Best Buy, but they didn't have any soldering wire either. Unfortunately it was too late to go to Radio Shack, so I relented and went to Wal-Mart. Again, my wife was happy to give me a list of items that we needed while I was in "the store."
It didn't take long to solder the wire on for the motor once I go home and the Stampede was off and running again... for about 5-10 minutes... then the left front wheel feel off. Fortunately, it wasn't a big deal. A screw had come loose. After a few minutes of looking around for a screw or some other parts I found what I needed and proceeded to put the wheel back on. Ready to go again, I hit the gas and the truck just stuttered - the battery was now dead. I thought about recharging it, but decided I'd had enough fun with R/C cars for the night.
