Getting speed using what you have... (A Modern Classic)

Now that is down to basic household sundries Big T! Did you use olive oil to lube the chassis? Just kidding! I use an old handkerchief to roughly clean and polish off the brushes, and these were my fathers as carrying them today is not the general custom of most men. Although soft, the weave is coarse enough to remove the carbon deposited on the brushes and glide over the surface. If one does not have a Dremel, you can scour the gear teeth with extra XXXX steel wool. Toothpaste was the abrasive of choice in the 1960's to lap gears-do this with the gear plate under power of course and run for three-to-five minutes. Brasso, should you have some, will remove corrosion, and most households have Naval Jelly lying around which works great. I also clean the chassis and gear plate initially with liquid hand soap and a toothbrush, making sure to dry the entire assembly with a blow dryer. This is a common degreasing agent and is quite thorough. Polishing the inner magnet surface can be done with a number of items, but that handkerchief or a paper towel with a dab of toothpaste work just fine for this. Toothpaste on a handkerchief will polish all contact surfaces on the pick-up shoes and chassis plates, as this is a very important step. The edge of a Post-It Note works well in removing grit from under the gears and armature. A straight pin is a good item to have for removing lint from axle races and the axle shafts. One thing I use exclusively that is outside the scope of commonality but easily obtained at Walmart is a bottle of Mother's Polish, which is a white metal polishing paste. This is one of the best things to use to polish a commutator with a Q-Tip and well as pick-up shoe surfaces, and is an excellent medium for lapping gears. I hope this helps! Aside from Mother's Polish, I pretty much do it as I did as a boy. Good job as always! God Bless! Tony mgbbrown

Big-T - I went and dug this up from the shadow site (sans photos):

By now most of us have encountered the green coppered, over-oiled, rear axle hairball carpet fiber mess that just won't run.  The typical cause is carbon build-up on the armature face, but can be from a variety of reasons or a combination of many ills.  No matter, we'll learn how to address this right here and now. 

Note: This article assumes you have a basic working knowledge of how to assemble and disassemble an HO Slot Car chassis.

What you need:

• Electrostatic jewelry Cleaner (optional)
• Simple Green degreaser (optional)
• Screwdriver
• Wheel puller / press (optional)
• Tweezers
• Toothbrush
• Paste copper cleaner (Twinkle for example)
• A sheet of printer paper

Step 1.  Remove the body screws and guide pin.

Step 2.  Remove the chassis clip.

Step 3.  Remove the armature plate.

Step 4.  Remove the magnets and set aside.  Remember the orientation so you replace them in the proper position.

Step 5.  Remove the commutator brushes.

Step 6.  Remove the hubs/tires.

Place the clip, arm plate (with arm and gears), and chassis bottom (in other words, all the parts EXCEPT the magnets and brushes) into an electrostatic jewelry cleaner filled with undiluted simple green.  Set for 4 minutes and run. (this step can be skipped, but it is great for removing oil from all the parts, especially the armature wind.)

Step 7.  When the jewelry bath is complete, inspect the parts.  You should notice everything is quite a bit cleaner, now to finish it off.

Step 8.  Using a toothbrush, scoop an ample amount of copper cleaner and brush the chassis bottom copper and pickup shoes until perfectly clean.  Rinse.  Dry with a paper towel or hair dryer.  Set aside.

Step 9.  Using a toothbrush, again scoop an ample amount of copper cleaner and use it to clean the 4 gears and armature face plate.  Please note for the face, many guys use a dremel or sandpaper or worse.  I DO NOT recommend doing this, as it WILL scratch the arm face.  This process is non-destructive and will not scratch.  Clean until satisfied.  Rinse.  Dry with hair dryer.  Set aside. 

(NOTE:  I've since tried a VRP Comm Tool and can say with confidence that if all you "really" need to do is clean the comm plate, this is a much faster method.  You can read my review here.

Step 10.  Clean the clip in the same manner as above.

Step 11.  Clean the magnets by wiping with a damp paper towel.

Step 12.  Clean the brushes by rubbing them on the paper until they stop leaving black marks.

Step 13.  If needed, use the tweezers to remove any remaining fibers from the axles.

Now the parts are all clean and dry.  Reassemble the chassis and battery test.  In most cases you will have a smooth running but squeaky chassis.  Lubricate with your favorite oil in the common oiling points (armature post, gear post under axle, rear axle holes, arm gear, etc).

VI-O-LA.

Any questions, let me know.  The most important thing to get over is getting your chassis wet.  Once you can do that for yourself and see it is OK, you'll trust the process a lot more.  Any added tips just let us know!

Happy Racing,

Big-T; Getting the armature wet is absolutely not a problem in answer to your question. I tried an inexpensive one from Wally World and it was a no go as far as it's ability to clean thoroughly, which could be hampered further by the degreaser chosen to do the job chemically. The automotive section of just about any large store and especially places like Advance Auto or Car Quest will have excellent degreasers that are well suited for the task at hand. Still, even with two or three chassis' to clean at a time on a really GOOD DAY with wife imposed purchasing sanctions, cleaning the old fashioned way with a toothbrush and a good dish washing detergent has been more than satisfactory since relaunching into the hobby in 2008. BESIDES-for me anyway cleaning a chassis and taking my time doing it removes me from the daily grind, and that is what a hobby is about. Cleaning is not necessarily down-time so to speak in this case-just a part of the hobby. I do plan to change my own oil when the MGB is finished and wash the car from time-to-time, and do all necesary maintenance-so that I guess goes with the territory as an illustration. Still-the ultrasonic cleaner does an excellent job I am told. Take Ray's advice! God Bless! Tony mgbbrown

Big-T; We have discussed the various methods of cleaning track residue from tires, something that can rob speed from an otherwise well prepared chassis. It seems that 3M's blue or green masking tape works well for this and is used by racers virtually everywhere. I saw the following at Greg Braun's site:

I will of course try this, but will need to get some first. Formula 409 will ruin a body and certainly remove any chrome from bumpers and hubs so BE CAREFUL! It is also a Butyl based cleaner and is heady stuff! God Bless! Tony mgbbrown

I too am a tape man-I have even experimented as to which is better-regular masking; green automotive paint masking; or the blue house paint masking tapes. No question that 3M makes the best out there. No doubt you saw the tape use suggested by the real Auto World-sounds like something I may be interested in finding out. God Bless! Tony mgbbrown

John; Shuford Mills makes some really good tape too. There are OOODLES of specialty tapes out there that will far outperform what we have been using, but like I said-these are specialty tapes for specific industrial uses like securing space shuttle tiles and the like, which translates to a yearly salory per roll. I used tan tape too, and I think that the tack may be more aggressive than the others which can be a good thing in slot car racing. I will try lighter fluid, but nothing around here seemed to work as well as the tape when I was in the testing mode. God Bless! Tony mgbbrown

Greg Braun says that it leaves adhesive behind that picks up more dirt and dust off of the track surface. Well, clean it again with some more tape! Race again! It also gives you some traction-like tire goo. God Bless! Tony mgbbrown 

Is listed as a synonym for speed and I think that's where this idea fits, rather than pure speed. Maybe liken it to carrying a steel jack vs. an aluminum one in the pits.

I started using small paper clips way back when to hold and separate various springs. I invariably would shoot 2 or 3 across the kitchen whenever I tried to get one out of a container. Drats! I used to tape or paint the chrome ones to mark which pit box they belonged in (G+, Magna Traction, etc.... The ones pictured are Tomy SG+ pick up shoe springs). Then one day in the nineties, I found these steel, plastic coated ones in different colors. Just what the doctor ordered. Since the are steel, they hold there shape really well and maintain "tension" to keep the springs captive. Only had a couple "get loose" over the years.

This is my only speed tip and I'm stickin' to it. Hope the following pictures help explain what I mean.