Our Featured Tip
Submitted by Admin on Tue, 12/01/2009 - 20:32
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.
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,
Ray
IT WORKS!
Submitted by mgbbrown on Fri, 07/24/2009 - 19:15.I can say with unabashed enthusiasm that Ray's method works! His chassis are surgically clean and immaculate. I have a number of cars from Ray, and all are in a word, PERFECT. God Bless! Tony
mgbbrown
Perfect or Minty? + One more little tip
Submitted by Kelly Morman on Sun, 07/26/2009 - 22:55.Tony, taking into consideration some of the previous discussions that have taken place around here.......... I was just wondering about your saying they were "perfect" as oppossed to "minty". All kidding aside, Ray warned me about using a dremel tool to clean the chassis as he mentioned in his article however, I have found that a dremel with a polishing pad and some fine polishing compound can do wonders for scratches in pickup shoes. That being said, I have found it best to do this with them off of the chassis or you may have another mess to clean up if it all goes back on the chassis.
K.
THANKS Kelly!
Submitted by mgbbrown on Mon, 07/27/2009 - 05:49.Kelly; My use of words indeed sides with Ray and it must have been a gross oversight for me to use the word "perfect." My apologies! I am an avoider of the term mint as is Ray, and the spirit of the use was as praise for our site administrator. If you purchase anything from Ray, his chassis and bodies are indeed spotless and fully restored-perhaps a better description. If he tells you it is spot-on it is spot-on as the British say. Ray and I both try to be clear-our yes means yes and our no means no! THANK YOU for the Dremel tip! I am sure that it works fine with the soft felt buff. Often people will "launch" as it is called in the car restoration world parts with a wire wheel, and I am sure that that is what Ray is referring to here. It leaves fine tale-tale scratches on the surface of most items and will destroy plastic. The felt buffs I am sure are good for the application you describe. I use Mother's as a polish for pick-ups and do it by hand with a cotton sheet rag. I also remove corrusion from the metal chassis parts with Kleen Strip's version of Naval Jelly and if you have not tried it you need to! It restores plated MGB nuts, washers, and bolts to perfection and must not be left on too long or it will remove the cadmium plate. God Bless! Tony
mgbbrown
Dremels
Submitted by Admin on Sat, 08/01/2009 - 10:22.Well - wire, felt, stone, whatever...one wrong move (especially the speed set too high) and you'll find yourself melting plastic. No matter what you use, if you look closely afterward you'll discover that whatever you cleaned got "scratched" clean. I prefer my process for this reason, it doesn't add any scratching. It gets things clean as new. That being said, if you are good with a dremel and can reassure yourself you are polishing and not scratching, then knock yourself out. There's no right or wrong way here, just alternatives.
Dremels
Submitted by mgbbrown on Sat, 08/01/2009 - 10:53.Ray-you are EXACTLY right! A Dremel on plastic using a felt bob tip is bad news. Stress marks on srew posts are often repaired with nothing more than a few quick passes of a hair dryer set on high. The old method was was using a lighter and man-melt city even on the quickest of passes. Just entirely too much uncontrolled heat transferred to the post base area. I am NOT advocating using a Dremel on plastic if you read the post-using a felt attachment with a buffing compound such as Mother's Polish can clean select metal surfaces such as an armature commutator face safely I believe. I must again clarify that I use Plastic Kote's version of navel jelly to remove corrosion from any metal surfaces and follow up with Mother's Polish on a Q-Tip swab. It is SLOW of course but has proven results too. You have gotten surgically clean stuff from me too Lad! I love how you clean chassis' and bodies using the ultrasonic cleaner and will look for one. It is a GREAT method and a time-saver with equal results. The problem is that out here in the boonies where the rednecks ride deer to work and feed their pick-up truck when they get home- the civilization of the store world is grossly lacking in such conveniences. We just lost the ONLY hobby shop that I know of reasonably close by. Maybe the new Super Walmart opening in Oxford will carry Testors products. God Bless! Tony
mgbbrown
Well, I've certainly seen my
Submitted by Admin on Sat, 08/01/2009 - 10:59.Well, I've certainly seen my share of scrached up arms, and chassis bottoms where the dremel slipped and tore up the plastic...I guess that's where some of my disdain comes from. Likely from whoever did it doing it wrong, but I've found if I don't use one at all then that will never happen!
You'll find ultrasonic jewelry cleaners on ebay and for cheap. A very small investment for something I use constantly.
Copper Cleaner
Submitted by ken on Mon, 01/11/2010 - 16:35.Lemon juice and salt works as well for cleaning copper- it works wonders! Just rinse with warm water. I wouldn't soak my arms in it but I use it on T- jet chassis', pick ups, and any thing copper.
Yep
Submitted by Admin on Mon, 01/11/2010 - 16:45.I've read similarly that vinegar and salt works and I tried it, but I still prefer the results from paste copper cleaner such as twinkle.