# JL Thunder Jet, Not impressed.



## jnoser (Oct 26, 2004)

I do not mean to be a troll. I got out my old Aurora slot car race set the other day (early 1980's) When I was younger I used my cars for part etc, so I no longer had any cars. I went and bought a JL T-Jet and some used AFX magna track. I found the T-Jet to run very poor out of the box, it was also noisy and rough running. I finnaly got it running ok, but it is still slow. The afx cars do fly off if you go too fast so I don't see why the t-jets are so great. After running the t-jet for awhile the motor melted and it dies for good. I have to say I will not buy another t-jet. I will say the t-jets are generally better looking and nicer details though. Do others not have these problems?
JN


----------



## TX Street Racer (May 8, 2004)

Jnoser, first off, welcome to the board.

Secondly, I have never had any problems with a motor literally melting down or etc. Some of these JLTO's are a bit noisy.....but with proper oiling and break in these cars do get quieter. I have alot of the magnet cars (vintage AFX,Tyco,Lifelike, etc.) but I must say that 90% of the time I run my JLTO's. I usually change the rear tires to Wizzard brand silicones,add a neo dot traction magnet, and slight oiling and minor adjustments and I have a decent running car. Sometimes you do run across a JLTO that simply won't perform like it should.........or it's a hassle to tweak it.....but in my case those have been rare to find.

You also have to consider that we're buying a JLTO that's being mass produced...and for around $12 (average) a pop I can live with minor tweaks and tuning. I actually have several JLTO's that are rather fast.......and really competitive racers (fellow HT member Capt. Fred can tell you this as well)

Bottom line is I wouldn't call these junk.........they just need a bit of attention sometime to get to perform to thier peak potential. :thumbsup:


----------



## mtyoder (Jan 3, 2004)

I've found that some run good right out of the box and some definately do not. All the ones I race I've had to work on to get good performance. I usually clean out the factory grease first, and oil it lightly. Trueing the tires helps a lot with the handling. Sometimes they don't press the brass spacer on the bottom of the armature all the way against the commutator. Sometimes the axles are bent. Lots of little stuff to work out, but they're not that expensive to begin with.


----------



## jnoser (Oct 26, 2004)

I agree they are not that expensive, but I guess it seems the drivetrain setup is just not as good or reliable, one weak link seems to be the brushings. Which is too bad because they are better looking and more detailed cars. Maybe I will give them a second try. 
btw, The motor must have got hot because it melted to the upper plasic part. I was runnig it and I saw a little smoke to I stopped, but once it cooled it was locked up solid.
JN


----------



## TX Street Racer (May 8, 2004)

jnoser said:


> I agree they are not that expensive, but I guess it seems the drivetrain setup is just not as good or reliable, one weak link seems to be the brushings. Which is too bad because they are better looking and more detailed cars. Maybe I will give them a second try.
> btw, The motor must have got hot because it melted to the upper plasic part. I was runnig it and I saw a little smoke to I stopped, but once it cooled it was locked up solid.
> JN



LOL, I've never had that problem at all  

I've found that the stock brushes are ok.......at least I've had great performance with them. Also, with my experience and musings with them I'd say the drivetrains are reliable...that is once you find a good out of the box runner........you'll definately know it when you do to....because that car will be a beast on the track :jest: 

Just this past Saturday night my friend and fellow Hobbytalk member Mike aka Captain Fred (Mike lives about an hour away from me) came up to run some slots in my garage. I kept running my JLTO's.......so he began running a few of his that he brought. Thing is, he just grabbed a handful of brand spankin new JLTO's from his house. He'd never ran most of these.....and I tell ya, I don't think we found a dud in any of the bunch he brought. In fact, the JLTO Dodge Charger he brought was flat spankin' my JLTO Camaro in the straight aways.....and my Camaro is one of my usual runners complete with an aluminum front end kit. I was blown away at how fast that Charger was.

So all in all man, do give these cars another try....in fact, I strongly recommend that you buy a case of say series 6 or 7 from Ebay. Those cases are going for about $60 a case of 12 cars. This way you'll have a handful of cars to try out....and you'll find there are some great running JLTO's.....


----------



## roadrner (Jul 21, 1999)

The later rounds ran alot better than the first version of the TOs. Maybe you had one of those early ones that needed some tweakin'. Don't give up on them, I have quite a few that came out of the box screaming, for a tjet style chassis. :thumbsup: rr


----------



## noddaz (Aug 6, 1999)

Jnoser, what are you using for a power supply?
I ask because I semi-regularly "abuse" JL cars on tracks with 10 amp supplys and have yet to burn one up.
(on the other hand, I was at a race where we burned up something like 4 mag cars arms in one day... And one of them was mine. But that is another story...)


----------



## A/FX Nut (May 28, 2004)

Jnoser, Don't give up on these cars. I didn't like them at first either, but the more I tweak them and learn how to get better performance out of them, the more I like them. If you don't have one you may want to purchase a 125 ohm resister for a Parma controller. It really helps in driving those JL Tuff Ones. You can get them through www.howorld.net And welcome to HobbyTalk. Randy aka The Face of Evil :devil:


----------



## boss9 (Apr 19, 2002)

Hello!

Glad you decided to join us!
I can't really add much that hasn't been said, but my experience with these has been mostly positive. I fiddle with anything if it needs it--new or old. I've come to expect that any model from any manufacturer may need a little adjusting right out of the box to run better-or sometimes just run at all.
I'd definitely say give it another go.:thumbsup: 

Cheers..


----------



## hefer (Sep 18, 1999)

Oil!!!


----------



## AfxToo (Aug 29, 2003)

Yes, I've burned up TJets and AFXs in the distant past and a couple of magnet car arms more recently. The worst offenders: Aurora TuffOnes and Slimlines. The secrets to avoiding meltdowns with TJets and their AFX cousins (not TOMY AFX) are:

#1. Reducing friction in the drivetrain 
#2. Proper brush tension

Other factors such as weak motor magnets (e.g. Slimlines) is not as much a factor with the JL cars because they all have strong magnets. Reducing the friction in the drivetrain is a matter of removing any binding and making sure everything that turns does so freely and with as little resistance as possible. Once everything is turning smoothly a periodic cleaning and oiling at all of the bearing points will keep them that way. Dirt, lint, and grime cause friction and must be removed. Don't over-oil in the bottom hole or let oil get inside the motor where it's being deposited of the motor comm plates. If your brushes are oily then you are over oiling.

Brush tension is an equally big factor. Too much and too little brush tension are equally bad. My advice is to set the brushes at a tension that leaves the car running fast, smooth, and cool after dozens of laps. Setting too much tension will make make the car a rocket ship for 5 laps and then it heats up and performance drops off or the car melts down. Make it a point to constantly feel your car for excessive heat build up after adjusting the brushes. If it gets very hot to the touch then it's in trouble. Warm is okay, hot is not. If it runs like a dog and you get a lot of sooty carbon build up on the comm plates then brush tension is probably too low. If the brushes are cutting a shiny groove in the comm plate then brush tension is too high. Ideally the contact surface between the brushes and the comm should be slightly grayish. Trial and error is all you can do until you get a better feel for where to start with the brush tension. 

Burning up an HO slot car motor is not that hard. All you have to do is stall the armature while applying maximum current. Just look at the size of the wire on the armature. It's quite thin, like a small value fuse. The thing that keeps a DC motor from burning up from the get go is the voltage that the motor generates when it is spinning. As long as the motor is spinning the voltage that the motor generates opposes the voltage applied from the controller, which in turn reduces the current that is applied to the motor significantly. The voltage generated by the motor is directly proportional to how fast the motor is spinning. If there is any binding in the drivetrain the motor will spin more slowly, thereby reducing its generated voltage (which is called back EMF) and increasing the current to the motor. Poof.

_One precaution to take with any slot car is to never lay on the throttle if the car is not moving or is moving way too slowly. If a quick pump of the trigger doesn't move the car then take a look at it. It only takes a few seconds of the locked armature condition to melt down the armature or melt the brushes into the chassis._


----------



## TX Street Racer (May 8, 2004)

AFXTOO, I appreciate you posting that info.....I still have alot to learn...and posts like yours are exceptional. Thank you for posting that advice :thumbsup:


----------



## vaBcHRog (Feb 19, 2003)

A/FX Nut said:


> Jnoser, Don't give up on these cars. I didn't like them at first either, but the more I tweak them and learn how to get better performance out of them, the more I like them. If you don't have one you may want to purchase a 125 ohm resister for a Parma controller. It really helps in driving those JL Tuff Ones. You can get them through www.howorld.net And welcome to HobbyTalk. Randy aka The Face of Evil :devil:


 Also if you do not want to install a resistor in an existing controller you can get a complete controller from BRP

http://sky.prohosting.com/horacer/brp/nitro.html

Roger Corrie


----------



## newbombturk (Dec 2, 2000)

It's called "blueprinting" my friend. Getting these cars to run well out of the box is a small task. Proper mesh, oiling and brush tension is required to get them to run well. 
I will agree though...the quality could use some improvement from the factory. I like them but they could be better.


----------



## Captain Fred (Feb 19, 2000)

A few of my first series JLTOs were duds. 

Some of my newer series JLTOs have been surprisingly fast though. I was impressed with how well they ran right out of the box with just a little oil and some warming up. Street Racer hooked me up with some silicones and an extra magnet on a couple of them. The Charger is still bone stock though. I gotta get some front end kits for a few of the others. I'm gonna keep the Charger stock though.

Brian, I had a blast running laps at your place! We gotta get some more people into the fray. Thanks for hooking me up with the slicks and mags. You've given me some good ideas to upgrade my track. I look forward to our next race.


----------



## TX Street Racer (May 8, 2004)

Captain Fred said:


> A few of my first series JLTOs were duds.
> 
> Some of my newer series JLTOs have been surprisingly fast though. I was impressed with how well they ran right out of the box with just a little oil and some warming up. Street Racer hooked me up with some silicones and an extra magnet on a couple of them. The Charger is still bone stock though. I gotta get some front end kits for a few of the others. I'm gonna keep the Charger stock though.
> 
> Brian, I had a blast running laps at your place! We gotta get some more people into the fray. Thanks for hooking me up with the slicks and mags. You've given me some good ideas to upgrade my track. I look forward to our next race.



Mike, dad and I have been putting laps down nearly every night this week  I got my package from Road Race Replicas today....so lots of other cool goodies man.

I'd love to get about half a dozen serious guys together.........I know of one other guy who does have a few race sets......but I'm not sure how serious he might want to get with the hobby.....he needs a bit of exposure to racing


----------

