# Frustrated



## Grampa Ho (Feb 25, 2009)

O.K. Now I am getting a little upset to say the least.
Building and racing for over 40 years and just cannot seem to dial 
in a JL chassis. This one has some beans, and I want to run it sooooo
baddddd but every tip I have read I have tried and still on takeoff,,,,
pulls to the right and poooof, deslots. Not so mention we are left turn only racers, so on power up in and around corners, same results. weight did help but really slowed the overall performance and cornering was a little tricky with the weight. Less tension in the shoe springs decreased power. shoe travel was limited but with the same results, twisting and popping out of the slot. Seems to pull to the right and I did check to make sure that my wheels were tight. They are. 
Any further ideas would be great.
The only thing that I have not tried that I can think of was to replace the JL
magnets with some 1970's magnets from my old stock to lessen the torque.
Hey, maybe I should try that before anyone posts a reply...... nah, you all know what I am talking about and no, I will not send it out for you to putz with.
Thanks all in advance
Rich


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## martybauer31 (Jan 27, 2004)

Have you tried decreasing your brush tension at all or maybe switching brushes?


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## slotnewbie69 (Dec 3, 2008)

also try replacing the pinion with an aurora 9 tooth...


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## dlw (Aug 17, 1999)

Could it be your chassis is a little bound up? Try removing the center gear, reassembling the chassis and spinning the rear gears with a dremel w/ soft cotton wheel to improve mesh. Just a thought.


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## WooffWooff (Dec 23, 2009)

*That's why.......*

I'm stick'n with original Aurora T-REX chassis. JL's ain't worth it. However,if one ever beats my Aurora, I may recapitulate......wooff


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## Drakenator (Jan 29, 2010)

If it pulls one way, do you have a front right side tire binding up? 

Here is a full guide to tuning fray cars. It just may help with this.
http://www.marioncountyraceway.com/files/Speed_Tips/Fray_Car_Tuning/index_Fray_Tuning.htm

I would also try running the car without the body and if it reacts better then you have a bound up body somewhere. Either it is hanging on a tire or a gear is hanging on the inside glass somewhere. Let us know what you find out. If it still pulls to the right after you remove the body be sure to check that your front or rear axles aren't bound up. Another items that might be common sense but I have to mention it. Be sure that your front axle is in the same axle hole (aka bearing) on each side. Perhaps someone could have installed the axle cockeyed.

And deslotting right off the throttle indicates that the front shoes may have too much travel. Look for the shoe adjustment tips in that guide listed above.

Good luck and let us know what you find out!


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## Grampa Ho (Feb 25, 2009)

done, done, and done.
wheels front and back are true and fronts are free wheeling. Independent front end fray style. O rings trued, and I agree, I primarily use older aurora chassis for the extra strong brush tines. All brush tensions are good, thats where I am getting the speed and my coast is great. I can floor it down the straight and flick the trigger off and back on quickly and it will pop up and to the right even at high speed. That is what gets me.
All great ideas and that is what I expected from you all, one of you will nail it and I will forever be in their debt. Well, maybe not forever but, you all know what I mean.


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## Grandcheapskate (Jan 5, 2006)

Since you said JL and not AW, it is possible you have a release 1 JL chassis? If so, those cars came with a guide pin that was too short and led to a lot of deslots.

Almost all, maybe all, of my pancake cars tend to slide out (in the rear) to one side upon acceleration. I can't remember whether it is left or right, but it is definitely there. I always figured it has something to do with the side the crown gear is on.

Joe


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## Bill Hall (Jan 6, 2007)

Hmmmmmmmm......seen this before....many times. Front this, front that....back back back back back!!!!!!

Humor me and change out the rear end. Or at least do the ultra low speed inspection of the rear axle, wheelsets, and tires.

[ame]http://s44.photobucket.com/albums/f30/modelmurdering/?action=view&current=MOV05613.flv[/ame]

Blame for the launch deslot or the throttle on deslot is not limited to the front components being out of whack. It becomes especially bad when you have bent axles, or two rear rims that are out of round AND the lumps are indexed 180 degrees from one another. Rear wheel flubber will fling you just as surely as any front end component can.


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## dlw (Aug 17, 1999)

One other thing I can think of is that some chassis have uber-braking, which can make a car sway to one side. If you have adjustable brake on your controller, try different settings to find that happy medium.


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## mking (Apr 25, 2000)

*if its an older JLTO*

then replace the rear axle. 

someone (swamper?) posted a great pic a fair bit ago showing that in some JL chassis the knurls on the rear axle actually hit the chassis, leading to random and unpredictable deslots. you can use just about any type of 1/16 wire as a rear axle. drill rod, drill stock, even piano wire (commonly available from hobby stores) will work.


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## joegri (Feb 13, 2008)

ok heres my 2 cents worth. try taking all the goodies off that chassis ,install them into a simular but diiferent chassis. if you get the desired results. take offending chassis clean it with a flameable liquid and torch the biazich!! thats right offer it to the slot gods! that lil chassis has been moching you since the day you picked it up!and yes it does talk behind your back.but please post your findings would like to hear the out come good luck to you sir!!


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## mahorsc (Mar 26, 2008)

lots of good tips here
i love the jl/aw i have and have sold these cars most running 2.9 secs on a 24x4 tko oval there are several problems you have to over come

1 rear axle if very loose when you pull trigger torque twist the axle it moves frt and back makes car dog track you have to us a bigger axle or tighten axle holes

if you are getting spring bounce the shoes need to be just a liitle tail heavy there is a sweet spot you have to find


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## sethndaddy (Dec 4, 2004)

send it to me, I'll putz with it........


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## SwamperGene (Dec 1, 2003)

mking said:


> then replace the rear axle.
> 
> someone (swamper?) posted a great pic a fair bit ago showing that in some JL chassis the knurls on the rear axle actually hit the chassis, leading to random and unpredictable deslots. you can use just about any type of 1/16 wire as a rear axle. drill rod, drill stock, even piano wire (commonly available from hobby stores) will work.


Found it :

We'll bring this back to the top as it's been brought up on HT and a few others have asked me about this. The following picture should help. 










The regular JL/AW chassis, especially going into the softer gray material, would show various degrees of warpage at the back end of the chassis...referenced by the dotted red line above. This, when combined with huge, inconsistant splines on the axles is where the hop comes from. It could be hard to spot because holding the car in the air would not reproduce the problem, but when put on the track this is what was happening: 










As the weight of the car came down on the spinning axle, the splines would hit the chassis. To make matters more confusing, under torque the problem would go away. This is because under power, the axle is pushed down and forward, usually offering enough clearance for the splines. Once you got to the middle of a straight...cruising speed, if you will....the chassis dropped back down on the axle and the jitterbug dancing started. It also added to any braking, which is why the jumpy cars would tend to go sideways when full brake was applied. 

The Ultra G chassis very simply and effectively eliminates the problem. If you look closely, there is now a "channel" molded into the chassis above the axle, providing tons of tolerance for any axle issues. Although some are a little torque-heavy causing the usual wheelie attempts, every Ultra G I've seen run has been smooth in the back. To further demonstrate, I've been able to smooth out most of my older chassis by shaving a little plastic above the axle...just enough that you can slip a piece of paper between the axle and chassis when the car is resting on the track. 

Suddenly, a lot of my older JL/AW cars have become fun to run, as well as potential winners!


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## joegri (Feb 13, 2008)

are you saying that a bad/rough rear axel will do the reaction that has been described above. you mean that these things are so sensitve that bad casting of an axel will make it deslot upon acceleration? whoa i gotta sit back and ponder that. i guess if the axel was true. the prob would be somewhere else.grampa ho posed a curious situation.


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## joegri (Feb 13, 2008)

o by the way that is a beautiful illistration swampa g good job . kinda makes it clear to guys like me. (i like pics)


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## Pomfish (Oct 25, 2003)

How does one "Tighten the axle holes"?
Thanks,
Keith


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## mking (Apr 25, 2000)

*how do you tighten axles holes?*

super glue.

put a drop in the hole you want to tighten, wait a few seconds, and start turning the axle BEFORE the super glue fully sets. that way you dont need to remove the axle, which on a tjet style car is more of a pain than on a newer style chassis where the rear axles are more easily removed


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## NTxSlotCars (May 27, 2008)




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## Pomfish (Oct 25, 2003)

mking said:


> super glue.
> 
> put a drop in the hole you want to tighten, wait a few seconds, and start turning the axle BEFORE the super glue fully sets. that way you dont need to remove the axle, which on a tjet style car is more of a pain than on a newer style chassis where the rear axles are more easily removed


OK, I have heard of that procedure.
I guess my question should have been "How do you tighten the axle hole and have the axle centered?"

Using super glue and ending up with the axle too close to the chassis does me no good. Or too far off center the other way is no good either.
Also, how long does the super glue last before wear?
Thanks,
Keith


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## mahorsc (Mar 26, 2008)

NTxSlotCars said:


>


i am telling you typed a bad word


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## mahorsc (Mar 26, 2008)

Pomfish said:


> OK, I have heard of that procedure.
> I guess my question should have been "How do you tighten the axle hole and have the axle centered?"
> 
> Using super glue and ending up with the axle too close to the chassis does me no good. Or too far off center the other way is no good either.
> ...


i use an old rtho gear press and a b-b i over tighten (closing hole) then i take a reamer to resize hole 
most of the times i have used super glue it does not wear out it breaks or cracks 
i have had luck with jb weld and it almost matches color of chassis


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## dlw (Aug 17, 1999)

I tried an experiment using a possible fix for this. But I need access to a fastened track to get true results. I'll tell my findings shortly and edit this post.

Was at the local shop and tried out the cars I tweaked, and it seems to work. Remember the axle splines hitting the chassis?









Well I just use that action at high speed and grind out a valley for the axle to rest in. the splines go in the the valley, but don't hit the chassis and smoothes out the car.

I did this by taking the tires of the car, and running it on the track. Since the crown gear is bigger (circumference-wise) than the rims, it touches the track. Place some thick kind of paper under the crown gear ( A business card will do), this will protect the track from the spinning crown (it will bore into the track). Run at top speed and apply pressure (not too much) to the rear of the car so the crown gear is peeling out on the business card. After half a minute, you'll notice the car runs faster and smoother.


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## Grampa Ho (Feb 25, 2009)

O.K. then. I done did it. Whew! What a mess.
I disassembled the chassis down to bare bones, checked axels, all good, checked spring rates, good, no problem with the shoes, gears all ok to.
The problem? warped chassis. After looking at past posts, did the boil trick and things looked good. Put everything back together and no jumping, or twisting off on start up. I figured I put in a good days work all told and do not want to do it again. Why can't someone just make things simple and true anymore?
Thanks for all the help guy's.


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## slotnewbie69 (Dec 3, 2008)

yeah it's almost like square,level and plumb are dirty words these days!oh!and round!


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## joegri (Feb 13, 2008)

grampa thanx for posting the problem and solution.i did folow this until its solution.nextt-jet i build will start with a good boilin session.seems i,ve done it 1 time seemed to work. did you drop the chassis in the water after you took it off the heat and let it cool for a long while?


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## NTxSlotCars (May 27, 2008)

Your not running on Tomy track are ya?


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## Grampa Ho (Feb 25, 2009)

Hey Joe, I'm not saying it will cure all, but if it helps to solve a problem I will certainly post it here first. This board has helped a 40 year slot-aholic find quite a few solutions,
As for how it worked for me?
put it cold water,fast boil, off on first bubble, off burner,natural cool down so as not the shock or temper the plastic.
This included a small weight I had resting on top all through the process.

NT, we run on tomy, af/x, and 1960's aurora.
Must adapt and that's what's so challenging.


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