# JL vs. AW vs. DASH armatures???



## mikeponiatowski (Jan 24, 2006)

Hi all,

I am not a racer but I have always liked using JL armatures for inexpensive good performing replacements for Aurora T-Jet armatures, especially when also upgrading the magnets. Obviously, they are getting very rare and options are now AutoWorld and Dash armatures. I have seen threads here on Dash 2 - 3 lam armature performance, but how do they compare with AutoWorld and JL? Also, are AutoWorld the same as the old JL armatures? All seem to be in the same $5.00 - $7.00 price range.


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## slotcarman12078 (Oct 3, 2008)

IMHO, the Dash arms are better than AW, JL and Aurora arms. Dan used much higher quality materials for his arm shaft, has a much better arm mounting method which yields a flatter, more level com plate, and his are much higher consistency in terms of Ohms. A level com equals better running!

As far as performance, I find the 3 lam Dash is better than the JL/AW arms as far as power produced. I personally don't see much difference between JL and AW arms. I have yet to try the Dash 2 lam arm, but my guess is it'll be right up there with a "better of the lot" Aurora arm.


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## Rich Dumas (Sep 3, 2008)

JL and AW arms should be the same. The original company was Playing Mantis, which also did diecast cars and reissued some old Aurora model kits. Playing Mantis was sold to a company that mostly does diecast cars and after a few years the original owner bought back the slot car part of the business and started a new company called Round 2. Round 2 licenses the Auto World name.
I have a lot of experience with Aurora, JL/AW and Dash cars. I have written articles on tuning Aurora T-Jets and JL/AW ThunderJet 500s. An article on Dash cars is in the works.
Each type has its quirks. All three types can be tweaked to get similar performance. Good 16 ohm Aurora armatures (by good I mean race winning) are getting hard to find.
A number of people have done extensive testing on the new two and three lamination arms compared to Aurora arms. What it boils down to is that many of the NOS Aurora arms that are sold today are not suitable for racing, they can have many defects and some of those cannot be remedied. JL/AW arms are much more consistent in performance, I have only run across a couple of different possible defects in those out of about three dozen examples that I have examined. 
The Dash arms appear to have even more consistent quality, I have examined and measured ten examples each of both the two lamination and three lamination types.
I race with HOCOC and the Dash chassis with a two lamination arm is legal for any class that uses a 16 ohm Aurora arm. We have a class for JL/AW cars and Dash cars with three lamination armatures can be run in that.
So far results from actual races have been limited, we have only had a couple of meets this season.


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## Rich Dumas (Sep 3, 2008)

*Update*

This past weekend we had a race that included both JL/AW and 3 lamination Dash cars in SS trim. A new Dash car that had just been completed and had not been run at all until the race started finished third out of twelve entries. I believe that the car did not have a balanced armature and ran the stock nine tooth drive pinion.


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## mikeponiatowski (Jan 24, 2006)

Thanks for the update, I purchased a couple 3 lam and 2 lam arms from SlotsNstuff, all work great. Right up there with best of the rest.


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## glock24 (Feb 3, 2017)

What is the difference between a 2lam and a 3lam armature? Does one have more torque and the other more rpms?


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