Old Savage SS. Worth a rebuild?

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Ruskin

Member
Messages
7
Hello All,

I have an old (2005 maybe?) Savage SS that my Dad and I used to work on together when I was younger. We built it together and it really got me interested in RC. Sadly a few years later in 2007 he passed away and I took all the RC stuff we had and boxed it up. I've looked at it a few times but never had the heart to get it going again.

Fast forward to now and I have two boys of my own and my oldest is 5 and into Monster trucks and RC so I was wondering what if anything I could do to get it running? I don't remember much on it other than it was missing a fuel tank at the time and possibly a few other miscellaneous bits. I guess my real question is, if I spent money to get it running again and we needed to buy replacement parts, would I find them? What if I needed a new motor, would I get one that still fit? Or as sentimental as it is, would I still be better off getting a newer kit (id like something we could build together and NOT RTR).

Thanks,
Matt
 
Hi, 100% worth rebuilding savage, I have the original savage 21 which I have updated to the best upgrades of the Savage X truck, to include easy excess diff bulk heads & shock towers.
HPI are slowly getting parts coming out of factory’s & plenty of parts available on eBay!
Plenty of people on here to help you out just ask away!
 
If you have somewhere you can run it without any issues from the public then you should be able to get the necessary parts either from ebay or online shops. First thing is to check the engine will turn over. Fresh fuel, battery for glow starter, battery for receiver and transmitter, check servos work, throttle/brake works, check glow plug is good.
 
Hi, 100% worth rebuilding savage, I have the original savage 21 which I have updated to the best upgrades of the Savage X truck, to include easy excess diff bulk heads & shock towers.
HPI are slowly getting parts coming out of factory’s & plenty of parts available on eBay!
Plenty of people on here to help you out just ask away!

Awesome news, exactly what I was looking for.

Yes it absolutely is worth rebuilding an older Savage ! I too recently got back into nitro after a long 12 year absence. Heres a link to my original Savage 25 rebuild. Very excited , bring back nitro !👍

https://www.largescaleforums.com/threads/my-old-savage-son-returns.26524/

Glad to hear it. I will take a look at your thread soon. Glad you got it back up and running.

If you have somewhere you can run it without any issues from the public then you should be able to get the necessary parts either from ebay or online shops. First thing is to check the engine will turn over. Fresh fuel, battery for glow starter, battery for receiver and transmitter, check servos work, throttle/brake works, check glow plug is good.

Yea, I don't see that being an issue around here. Yeah, I was wondering about what to be replaced. more on that down below.

We got the truck out of the box tonight and its more complete than I thought, it even has a new fuel tank that I thought was missing. It does appear to be missing some hardware here and there. I figured the best bet was to assemble as much of it as I can and then take an inventory of what's missing.

The electronics are all still there, old as they are. But I don't imagine that will matter. The batteries are missing all the way around so I'll have to get new there. What about fluids? The shocks feel good, would you replace the oil. What about diff oil? Do these types of things go bad? Obviously I'll add new fuel and change the filter.

I'll take a look at the motor separately over the weekend. I assume I will need to tear it apart just because of the age?
 
I agree with keep it going. I did the same with my SS - and its awesome fun to get it going after a 15 year downtime.

Get most of the upgrades that HPI made over the years - like the diff covers mentioned. You can download the manual for the last model Savage to get the part numbers for the new parts. Things like the modified gearbox that splits from the top helped dramatically with tuning the shift points (still not a piece of cake, but much easier than it was when the SS came out). Get the hardened steel spur gear. Go through the new newest manual and pick the parts you think would make your life easier/better. The HPI website can be handy for tracking superseding parts as for most of them, they list the old part with a link to the superseding part - very useful.

Some of my local shops feel uneasy about stocking HPI. For example, one used to have a giant wall of parts in stock. Now, it's almost entirely Traxxas. When I buy something form them, they like to tell me to keep in mind of the stock problems and the company might not be around for long. As mentioned by guinnessdublin, parts are starting to come back now. The company went through a couple of ownership changeovers which disrupted supply but it seems like they have stabilised now and are getting their business back together.

There are other stores in my home country (AU) that sell online and are getting a good supply of parts so look around local/international for online ordering. The more local to you, the faster shipping should be of course.

As for the engine, I'd check the crank bearings. If you have the motor torn down, I'd just replace the bearings anyway. They are cheap and easy to swap out (engine in oven for a bit, then tap the block on the back plate face to drop them out).

Good luck! Can't beat the nitro sound and smell!
 
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Some of my local shops feel uneasy about stocking HPI. For example, one used to have a giant wall of parts in stock. Now, it's almost entirely Traxxas. When I buy something form them, they like to tell me to keep in mind of the stock problems and the company might not be around for long. As mentioned by guinnessdublin, parts are starting to come back now. The company went through a couple of ownership changeovers which disrupted supply but it seems like they have stabilised now and are getting their business back together.
This is exactly what I see at both my LHS's . hundreds of in stock Traxx-ass parts and absolutely ZERO HPI parts . After what I read about the past Traxx-ass lawsuits that were brought against HPI I am FOREVER BOYCOTTING TRAXXIS . HPI makes fine rugged products and I fully intend to support them as best I can but first I need to see reasonable parts availability here in the USA which unfortunately at this time a big issue .
 
I agree with keep it going. I did the same with my SS - and its awesome fun to get it going after a 15 year downtime.

Get most of the upgrades that HPI made over the years - like the diff covers mentioned. You can download the manual for the last model Savage to get the part numbers for the new parts. Things like the modified gearbox that splits from the top helped dramatically with tuning the shift points (still not a piece of cake, but much easier than it was when the SS came out). Get the hardened steel spur gear. Go through the new newest manual and pick the parts you think would make your life easier/better. The HPI website can be handy for tracking superseding parts as for most of them, they list the old part with a link to the superseding part - very useful.

Some of my local shops feel uneasy about stocking HPI. For example, one used to have a giant wall of parts in stock. Now, it's almost entirely Traxxas. When I buy something form them, they like to tell me to keep in mind of the stock problems and the company might not be around for long. As mentioned by guinnessdublin, parts are starting to come back now. The company went through a couple of ownership changeovers which disrupted supply but it seems like they have stabilised now and are getting their business back together.

There are other stores in my home country (AU) that sell online and are getting a good supply of parts so look around local/international for online ordering. The more local to you, the faster shipping should be of course.

As for the engine, I'd check the crank bearings. If you have the motor torn down, I'd just replace the bearings anyway. They are cheap and easy to swap out (engine in oven for a bit, then tap the block on the back plate face to drop them out).

Good luck! Can't beat the nitro sound and smell!

I'll take a look at the website, that's a really helpful tip, thank you. I'll also look at the parts that might make life easier for sure. I plan to take it all apart and give it a really good once over before putting it back together so maybe if i can replace parts while I'm at it I'll go that route. Some times I like to wait until something breaks first though. lol.

I wasn't even aware of the issues with HPI. Glad they are turning it around, I've always liked there stuff.

Yeah, I have a fairly decent couple of LHS, so i guess I'll find out if they stock parts or not.

Yeah, I've caught whiff or two of nitro just tinkering around and it takes me right back to when i first started.
 
This is exactly what I see at both my LHS's . hundreds of in stock Traxx-ass parts and absolutely ZERO HPI parts . After what I read about the past Traxx-ass lawsuits that were brought against HPI I am FOREVER BOYCOTTING TRAXXIS . HPI makes fine rugged products and I fully intend to support them as best I can but first I need to see reasonable parts availability here in the USA which unfortunately at this time a big issue .

It's funny you say that, I've never liked Traxxas either. I just fell into the HPI camp I guess and thought of Traxxas as the enemy lol.
 
So I got the engine out and partly disassembled but I cant get the crankshaft to turn. I'm not sure if its the piston that's stuck, or the crankshaft or a combination of the two. The piston is stopped around the middle of the sleeve, so I don't think its pinched. It was looking gunked up but relatively ok so its been sitting with carb cleaner in it for a day and I still cant get it to move at all.

Would heating it up help free it or is the motor pooched?
 
Hey Ruskin.

How'd you go with the engine? If it sat for 15 years without a good cleanout after the last run or without a liberal application of after run oil, my bet is that the crank bearings are locked up. I had a look at a 10cc nitro engine I have that sat for 16 years without running (and probably no after run oil). The bearings are rusted, but with a spanner on the crank where the flywheel goes, it turned easily once it got past the initial sticky bit. The spanner was definitely overkill - I was expecting it to be rusted solid.

If you can get the crank to turn with something (my 10cc OS has a flat on the crank fortunately), then you should be able to drop the piston enough to put a servo horn in the exhaust port or a stack of thick cable ties to push the sleeve out by turning the crank.

If you get the crank out, it's probably OK to use - perhaps use some metal polishing compound on the crank pin to clean it up, and where the bearings sit to help the crank slide in with new bearings.

Heating the enginer up to running temp or even a little more should help get the crank turning.

Let us know how successful you are.
 

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