# Tyco Curve Hugger and HP-2 Shoe Wear Solved



## Guest

Perhaps you have seen this? 

The Tyco Curve Hugger and HP-2 Pick-up shoes all end up cut through the center like a hacksaw blade was used on them.
I never got a used chassis of those type without this wear. I bought plenty of replacement shoes, and after 30-50 laps, got the same results. In addition, they rode rough, jumped and snapped on the joints, and sounded harsh.

I decided I would remedy this problem or ditch the lot (30+)!

Step 1: Finding The Flaw:
The Tyco pick-up designs looked to me to be gradual progressions with only minor improvements, not radical design changes. I cut my teeth on the wiper chassis, so I knew where they started. And yet the 440-X2 shoes can go hundreds of laps, and for obvious reasons. Wiper chassis ride on the wipers, the front wheels are for looks. The 440 rides on all 4 wheels with floating wipers and very light spring pressure.

But I always thought the CH and HP-2 were the 1st to do that as well. Wrong! The full-size front wheels and tires look damn good, eh? But upon closer inspection, they only touch the track, at times. They don't support the front end at all. I found instead, the shoe, which was intended to float on the rail with its variable spring, was supporting the front end entirely, and did not float at all.

Step 2: Finding a solution with only common stock Tyco parts:

The solution involved accomplishing 2 things. 

First, get the chassis supported on all 4 wheels.

Second, get the shoes to float as originally intended, but never accomplished by Tyco.

The first problem is easily solved: Tyco-Pro Rear tires are the correct width for _Most_ CH and HP-2 front rims, and their height gives full rolling chassis support. They are also still available new in silicone form. The only exception I found was the narrow front rims on my early black-frame CH chassis. Easily solved again, slice one silicone tire in two!

The second issue is a bit more tedious, but still not very difficult.
Remove the pick-up assy. Remove the shoes and springs. Hold the empty shoe-holder with the empty spring wells facing up. Using small flat-tipped needle-nose pliers, fold over the tiny brass flanges on either side of the spring well. Those were what the shoes had been striking on, and preventing the shoes from floating. Now re-install NEW springs and shoes, still available, and the pick-up assy. itself.

You should now be able to set the chassis on the track and roll all 4 wheels without any pressure on the chassis. Next, take the tip of your hobby knife
and slide it under the pick-up shoe. You should now be able to lift the shoes up and down even with your finger holding down on the chassis....something which was never possible with any CH or HP-2 Chassis!

The Wheels are now supporting the weight, and the shoes Float on the rails!

You will find that, during disassembly, most of the original shoe springs are black, burnt, and/or squashed. Bear in mind, the springs are the primary power conduit for power from the shoes to the pick-up plate, so clean, un-burnt springs are crucial to smooth power pick-up. It also important to inspect and clean the bottom of the spring well where the springs make contact inside the pick-up!

Follow these steps, and you will have a chassis that is as smooth and reliable as any HP-7 in your stable. If you have the Late-model HP-2 with the blade-guide, they are even smoother and quieter than most of my HP-7 Pin-Guide chassis!

If this has been of help to anyone, please let me know. Cheers!
Graves


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## racer8nut

Great info! I recently bought an old tyco set that had curvehugger chassis in it. There were 2 black chassis and 1 gray chassis with a petty body on it. I have been trying to find new pick up shoes for these chassis. Any ideas? Thanks

Rich


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## Bill Hall

Check out the awesome Curvehugger/HP7 how tos by our own "Grungrockjeepe"(r). Everything ya need to know and more with great camera work too!


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## Grandcheapskate

racer8nut said:


> Great info! I recently bought an old tyco set that had curvehugger chassis in it. There were 2 black chassis and 1 gray chassis with a petty body on it. I have been trying to find new pick up shoes for these chassis. Any ideas? Thanks
> 
> Rich


Rich,
Try Bob Molta at Slot Car Central (Tubtrack on eBay). He has just about everything.

His website is www.slotcarcentral.com.

The Tyco 440s and other magnet car chassis will only be riding on all four wheels if running on a magnetic track. If you put most (maybe any?) magnet car on a non-magnetic track, the pickup springs will prevent the front tires from touching the track. May be the same with the CH/HP-2, I don't know. I have very little experiance with them.

But clearly, if they are not touching even with magnetic downforce, then you've got a problem. Nice write-up.

Joe


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## Guest

Grandcheapskate said:


> Rich,
> Try Bob Molta at Slot Car Central (Tubtrack on eBay). He has just about everything.
> 
> The Tyco 440s and other magnet car chassis will only be riding on all four wheels if running on a magnetic track. If you put most (maybe any?) magnet car on a non-magnetic track, the pickup springs will prevent the front tires from touching the track. May be the same with the CH/HP-2, I don't know. I have very little experiance with them.
> 
> But clearly, if they are not touching even with magnetic downforce, then you've got a problem. Nice write-up.
> 
> Joe


NCP Hobbies has many oddball Tyco parts and plenty of them, at fair prices and very reasonable shipping rates. www.ncphobbies.com/164slotcar.html

Not to be a killjoy, but Bob has just about everything, at premium prices and 4 times the S&H. I traded with him years ago when this was not the case, but I can also appreciate his current need to make his hobby pay his bills. The economy is killing my auto repair business, but these are tough time for all of us not in the six-figure salary bracket. I am having to sell my personal slot collection a bit at a time, and this is not something any of us particularly enjoy doing just to make ends meet. But enough of the doom-and-gloom. I am on here to share my 35 years of fun experience, not bellyache, lol.

Tycos from the HP-7 and newer most definitely ride on all fours. The chassis magnets are situated over the rails for magnetic adhesion. There are no "magnetic tracks" to my knowledge. It has always been the orientation of traction magnets in relation to the actual track electric rails that provides magnetic attraction. 

The metal wings in the CH Black chassis were Tyco's first attempt to utilize magnetic attraction in their production cars. The Wings were merely extensions of the motor magnet field, and were fairly weak as far as adhesion was concerned. The HP-2 was Tyco's first use of dedicated traction magnets that were not the actual motor magnets. These are positioned directly over the rails at a point in the chassis lower than the axle. 

It is true that many HP-7s will ride too hard on the pick-ups, and even come up off the front axle. The die-cut spring strip provides too much force on the shoes, making the front end light and bouncy with lighter bodies.

Th solution that worked for me was to bend the shoe springs up toward the chassis and weaken their force by about 50%. This will ensure that even the bare chassis will ride on all 4 wheels and allow softer shoe contact.

The early edition HP-7 had copper spring plates and shoes. The shoes also had an odd angle to them which caused just the angled portion of the shoe to contact the rail. All later editions were nickle plated, and had an improved angle allowing the shoe to run flat on the rail like a snow ski.

If you take the time, you can even angle your old 440-straight shoes to get a fuller flat-contact on the rails, quadrupling their life as well. 
400s, in fact, have relatively a soft contact force out of the package. Many racers actually use 4 contact springs instead of 2 for better racing performance. I found that to be a bit excessive however for standard click-track layouts and normal hobby-play usage.

Since I have not had room in my house for the last 2 years for any layout, I have been concentrating again on individual chassis improvements and more rudimentary modeling issues. Also thinning out my overcrowded HO train collection as the economy dictates, but still working on refinements on those as well. 

Necessity may well be the mother of invention, but Reganomics has certainly been the father of efficiency!


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## twolff

I'd stay away from NCP Hobbies. I've read a number of posts from people who have attempted to do business with them and gotten nothing but a hard time, atittude, and no merchandise. 

I've made a number of purchases from Bob Molta from his web site and his eBay store. Everything has been exactly as represented (new stuff was new). Shipping is prompt and properly packed in a shipping box. Value can go beyond the price per piece, and it is certaintly the truth in this case.


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## Grandcheapskate

GTC65 said:


> There are no "magnetic tracks" to my knowledge. It has always been the orientation of traction magnets in relation to the actual track electric rails that provides magnetic attraction.


By "magnetic track" I mean a track with rails made of a material to which magnets will be attracted. No track is magnetic (that I know of). My point is that if you place a magnet car on a track with non-magnet attracting rails (such as copper tape or stainless steel), the pickup shoe springs will not compress and the front tires will not touch the track.

Joe


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## Guest

Ahh yes...I must have been brain dead last night, lol!. I had entirely forgotten about hand-laid rail being something other than plain steel. Stainless steel or even nickel silver would have its advantages. In fact, plain steel rail has always been the least desirable HO Train track material specifically because of its difficulty to clean and its tendency to arc and get dirty too quickly. Thank you for the enlightenment. Please forgive my lack of insight. I tend to have a rather narrow "stock materials " viewpoint, since that is primarily the materials I deal with myself. 
In HO Trains, I myself detest steel track as it is usually poor quality (sadly, Tyco was just thrilled with using the stuff. Their "Tru-Steel" track and switches were the worst I had ever attempted to use in my layouts for countless reasons, lol!)

And yet one of the coolest things I have had was the one of the first Tyco TURBO-Trains that was a hybrid train/440 slot car combination. And it definitely had to use the Special Tyco Steel track, or it just wasn't going to stay on it! In fact, I may just have to dig it up from my store-room again. Talk about some hard-to-find traction tires! Wow. I have a fresh new challenge!
Cheers!


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