Post by David C on Oct 19, 2009 7:15:45 GMT -7
Here are some tune up tricks thanks to Dave Jr. on the Slot Car Illustrated web site. Some tricks might be too difficult to attempt for some racers and some might not work for you. 
The car that I built for the 2009 Slot It shootout was made from a white kit and is completely stock except for the yellow motor, aluminum front wheels, and S1 tires.
I chose the yellow motor because it is underrated by Slot it. The motor is rated at 11.25 watts, when fully broken-in it dyno tests at 13.5 watts, 4 watts more than an orange motor.
The plastic wheels had a slight wobble so I replaced them with aluminum wheels.
The S1 tires are made in Italy by the people who race them.
The secrets to building a race winning car is in the assembly, and keeping the car as light as possible.
All of the parts were inspected for straightness and any flash was removed.
The chassis had 1/16” of material removed anywhere the chassis made contact with the body.
The motor pod screw heads were made smaller and installed 1 turn loose. The screw thread ends were slot cut through the pad bosses and epoxied in place.
The tires were glued to the wheels.
All four wheels and crown gear were balanced.
The crown gear had the slot widened 0.060” and Slick 7 washers were used between the axle tubes and the spherical axle bearings.
The pick up boss was strengthened with epoxy and the chassis was assembled.
The rear wheels are set for zero clearance and the gear is set at zero clearance.
The rear tires were finish trued after mounting on the chassis. It took almost 2 hours of sanding on the sanding fixture and sanding skid pad to get the tires perfectly true. This also helped brake-in the motor and chassis.
The body has two pieces of aluminum tubing added to the body posts for added strength. The assembled body was mounted with the screws ¾ turn loose.
Three pieces of black electrical tape were placed on the bottom of the chassis over the pod screws. This acts like a shock absorber and removes the vibration between the pod and chassis.
After tuning and testing I was satisfied with the car’s performance so I switched the chassis to a sidewinder for comparison.
With the sidewinder it was 0.040 seconds slower on the skid pad, and 0.150 seconds slower on the track.
I also tried the Lexan interior, it made no improvement to the cars performance.
In the Shootout race on my track, the car was almost 0.300 seconds, and 2 mph faster than the cars with orange motors.
To balance gears and wheels I use the same setup I use for balancing armatures.
Two razor blades on a level table.
Mount a gear or wheel and tire on an axle, roll it back and forth to find the heavy spot.
Put a drop of epoxy opposite the heavy side, and keep testing until it rolls without stopping at a heavy spot.
Once you have found the ideal chassis setting and you don’t want it to change, cut a slot in the thread end and the boss in the pod and add a drop of epoxy.
.
The car that I built for the 2009 Slot It shootout was made from a white kit and is completely stock except for the yellow motor, aluminum front wheels, and S1 tires.
I chose the yellow motor because it is underrated by Slot it. The motor is rated at 11.25 watts, when fully broken-in it dyno tests at 13.5 watts, 4 watts more than an orange motor.
The plastic wheels had a slight wobble so I replaced them with aluminum wheels.
The S1 tires are made in Italy by the people who race them.
The secrets to building a race winning car is in the assembly, and keeping the car as light as possible.
All of the parts were inspected for straightness and any flash was removed.
The chassis had 1/16” of material removed anywhere the chassis made contact with the body.
The motor pod screw heads were made smaller and installed 1 turn loose. The screw thread ends were slot cut through the pad bosses and epoxied in place.
The tires were glued to the wheels.
All four wheels and crown gear were balanced.
The crown gear had the slot widened 0.060” and Slick 7 washers were used between the axle tubes and the spherical axle bearings.
The pick up boss was strengthened with epoxy and the chassis was assembled.
The rear wheels are set for zero clearance and the gear is set at zero clearance.
The rear tires were finish trued after mounting on the chassis. It took almost 2 hours of sanding on the sanding fixture and sanding skid pad to get the tires perfectly true. This also helped brake-in the motor and chassis.
The body has two pieces of aluminum tubing added to the body posts for added strength. The assembled body was mounted with the screws ¾ turn loose.
Three pieces of black electrical tape were placed on the bottom of the chassis over the pod screws. This acts like a shock absorber and removes the vibration between the pod and chassis.
After tuning and testing I was satisfied with the car’s performance so I switched the chassis to a sidewinder for comparison.
With the sidewinder it was 0.040 seconds slower on the skid pad, and 0.150 seconds slower on the track.
I also tried the Lexan interior, it made no improvement to the cars performance.
In the Shootout race on my track, the car was almost 0.300 seconds, and 2 mph faster than the cars with orange motors.
To balance gears and wheels I use the same setup I use for balancing armatures.
Two razor blades on a level table.
Mount a gear or wheel and tire on an axle, roll it back and forth to find the heavy spot.
Put a drop of epoxy opposite the heavy side, and keep testing until it rolls without stopping at a heavy spot.
Once you have found the ideal chassis setting and you don’t want it to change, cut a slot in the thread end and the boss in the pod and add a drop of epoxy.
.