# How the Grunge man rocks a Curvehugger



## grungerockjeepe

I finally got a camera that takes good pics, so Im gonna share some valuable info on one of my favorite chassis, the Tyco Curvehugger. 

Whats funny is, the names 'Curvehugger' and HP-2 have been put on the packages of 3 chassis that are very different and have 2 sub variations totalling 5 recognizable versions. All motors arent created equal either. So before we get to the mods, lets ID what you have:










None of these is bone stock, but just the same, from the top view, only the black colors can be distinguished from the silver except of course for the one at the top. I refer to all 4 styles at the bottom as 'curvehuggers' and the style at the top as the 'HP-2' even though I once saw an exploded diagram on Ebay referring to this chassis as an HP-3. Its VERY different from the CH in every way except for the pickup assembly. Still, the tips Im going to cover here will apply to any of them. 










From the bottom you can see the differences. I have them lined up left to right based on which I think came first: A: Black chassis, quad flux collectors, B: Black chassis, dual flux collectors C: grey chassis dual flux collectors closed crown gear box D: grey chassis, dual flux collectors open crown gear box and finally E: HP-2 with a radically different design incorporating separate traction magnets, redesigned motor and rear gearset, and it could have either the same aluminum pin as the CH, or a new a guide flag. 

Outside of the color and the open vs. closed crown gear box, B-D are nearly identical. A of course has with its wide flux collectors has nowhere near the magnetic downforce and slides around much more. In MY opinion, this is the best of the bunch for challenging racing since you can slide the rear out in the turns and it takes much more skill to drive, having greater acceleration (if you have the right motor; more to come on that) than an AFX magnatraction but about the same magnetic traction. Trouble is, the black plastic can be more brittle than the grey. 

There are 3 distinct motors used in the CH series also. And of course they are NOT created equal:










The one on the far left is a Johnson motor and these are used on the first CH chassis (black, quad flux collectors). Its the weakest of all of these, if you have one of the other 2 to swap in, then go for it. The motor in the center is also a Johnson, but has an improved magnet/box design. since the mags clamp in, theyre lined up nicely as opposed to the glued in design of the first, which is probably why theyre much weaker. This is a good one, and these can run very strong. The one to the far right is a Mabuchi and this is probably the best of the bunch. Personally, Ive swapped these green arms into the 2nd style johnson box/mags with some pretty impressive results. And feel free to experiment with arms from other chassis too: TycoPro, Aurora G+ and Tyco 440 X2 arms all can give good results in either Johnson box #2 or the mabuchi box. 










The HP-2 has 2 motor variations: A johnson motor like on the left which should look familiar. It has the same lousy glued in motor magnets as the 1st CH design and while it runs better than that one, it gets dusted by the green wire Mabuchi design to the right. The Johnson arms on these arent bad though and if swapped into the Mabuchi set up it will run fairly well. Note the pinion gears in this pic also. The white one mounted to the Johnson is the stock piece and like most every one Ive ever seen its cracked. The mabuchi shows the first upgrade you should make: Stock pinion from a tyco 440 or HP-7. 

Next post will explain how I mod the motors on these.


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## grungerockjeepe

The first mod you'll make to the motor is venting the endbell, which has been seen on several of my other pics. This doesnt occur stock, you must carefully take a razor blade or dremel and remove some material exposing the commutator and brushes. This allows soot to escape, promotes cooling, makes cleaning easier and allows you to see how your motor is running. 

Completely disassemble the motor. I like to soak it in rubbing alcohol at least a few minutes to loosen up any crud. Be careful not to lose the little space disks that can be on both ends of the armature. I use a rubber emery wheel in my dremel to polish up the commutator nice and true and get rid of any soot. I also scrub the brushes all around on a piece of paper to polish them, dip a piece of poster putty in the alcohol and carefully roll the springs on it to clean off the soot. I then take a clean toothpick, stick it into the barrels and turn the barrels on it, polishing the insides. I then jam the barrel nice and tight onto the toothpick, and take my dremel/emery wheel and turn the barrel against the spinning wheel, polishing all sides nice and bright. 










Here is a stock endbell with the part you'll remove marked with blue sharpie. You could do this from just one side, but best to do both. I use a sliding razor scraper to open these up, but you have to be careful! Ive put many a slice into my thumb or forefinger doing thise. 











Once you mod the endbell reassemble the motor, oil the bushings up and this is what you should get. Your motor should spin like mad, and will run cooler and cleaner to boot. 

Now, to mod that pickup assembly...


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## grungerockjeepe

The pickup assembly is definitely the weak spot of the CH/HP-2 design. But it does have its strong points, if you just unlock the potential. There are 3 variations on this part also:










The 2 assemblies at the top are identical to each other except color. Those brass 'rivets' on top of the assemblies are actualy sleeves in the pickup spring 'buckets' , as opposed to the lower 'flat top' design found on later CH's and all HP-2s which have a fully plastic 'bucket'. If you are keeping the stock pickup ski/spring setup as opposed to doing a braid conversion (Ill show that mod another time) then the brass rivet design is the best one to have. The sleeve going all the way thru means more metal-to-metal contact with the pickup springs which is good, since the pickups just free-float with the only electrical connection being the spring. An underside shot shows the difference:










One problem with most of the black pickup assemblies (besides being more brittle) is that the pickup springs on a lot of these are made of steel, and dont conduct as well as the copper springs. Ditch em for copper. Tyco motorcycle springs are still available NOS and are a perfect replacement! The other problem with this design is, the pickups dont retract far enough, meaning either they grind the track creating drag and slowing you down while also creating more wear on the pickups. OR, you have to run huge front tires. Not good. But also fixable with my mod, which to date Ive done on every single CH and HP-2 I own since developing it several years ago. Ive done it easily over 100 times so I can do it in under 5 mins. Here's how its done:

First, carefully compress the rear 'hook' of the pickup skis and pull them down and hook them out of the assembly. Be careful not to drop the springs. Carefully re-open the rear hooks with a small flat blade, but not too far. They break off easily. Now, flip the assembly upside down. Steps 1 and 2 only apply to the newer, 'flat top' assemblies:










The stock part is on the left, step one is done on the right. See that front brass tab sticking up? Thats part of why your ski wont retract. Bend it down with a screwdriver flat towards the bucket. 










Now step 2 involves using a razor blade to rough out the excess material on the bottom of the spring buckets. Again, this wont work on the rivet top assemblies since the brass sleeve goes all the way thru. 










Go right to the insides of the bucket, and use a sawing motion to trim thru the backside of the buckets. This way when you shave them off, theyll come free as you come to your cut and it'll be a much neater cut. 










This is a spot where you REALLY have to watch your thumbs because of how you have to hold the assembly. Use a good sharp blade and shave that ring of excess bucket right off. This will rough out your assembly and you'll be ready to file it smooth.


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## grungerockjeepe

Next take a square needle file and get right to the inside of the buckets and file it down against those ridges that run to the inside. File it down nice and even with the rest of the pickup assembly. Again, if youre using a rivet type assembly then this is step 1 after dismantling it. 










Once youve done both sides with the square file, you should have a distinct cut on the insides of the buckets. Then take a flat or equalling file and go over the whole thing. It should be uniformly flat, with no traces of the bucket, or the brass tabs protruding beyond the underside of the assembly.










Once youre done, you should see that you took out a good bit of material. Here is a pic of a stock part on the left, with the cut and filed part on the right:










Next step is flattening the pickup skis if theyre not completely toast. They have 2 upward bends, one on each end. You want to get the ski pretty flat so it gets more track contact and so it fully retracts. Put it in a pair of flat nose pliers and flatten the surface of the ski. Youll see the ends spread out as you do, so squeeze up near each end good and tight, the press the ends back upright. Do that on each side, otherwise the ends will have spread too far to fit into the assembly. A fully filed down rivet assembly is shown above a stock pickup on the bottom left, flattened pickup on the right:










Get out your dremel and polish ever bit of metal thats going to do any conducting. Again, the rubber emery wheel is king here. Get both sides of the pickup skis, both ends of the springs, top and bottom of the assembly tabs that meet the motor brush barrels, and get the insides of the spring buckets. You can use a little polishing compound in there, and chuck a toothpick into your dremel to get right in the edges of the brass buckets since thats where the springs meet them. The difference between a car with a fully polished pickup assembly and a halfass polished pickup assembly is HUGE. Once you put this all back together, the differences in how the pickups retract is amazing, even though you only removed a small amount of material. Here's the comparison:

Stock, unmodified pickup assembly with ski at full compression:










And here's the modded part at full compression:










From the inside angle:










In terms of how much smoother, faster, and quieter your car runs you'll be completely amazed. Your pickups with last MUCH longer since in stock trim the front tires wont even touch the track. Now they can support the front of your car. And with the motor mods and full on cleaning you just did your CH should be running like a total madman!


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## grungerockjeepe

The other mods I do are replacing the stock aluminum guide pin with a leftover AW/JL XTraction piece turned to the pin side. The aluminum piece is probably already worn to paper thin as it is. I generally swap out the rear axle with a tyco 440 piece since its knurled to grip the crown gear and slightly wider. If youre keeping the stock wheels (hopefully you have a set of the centerline types in grey like came on the early black CH chassis) then the rear track is now slightly wider. And those wheels work beautifully with stock XTraction rear tires. AJ's delrin rear hubs work very nicely as well, or you could always do like my pic shows and go to Lifelike wheels which update the look, give you some width and fix the track problem as well:


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## resinmonger

Wow, Grungemeister, this thread is looking pretty sano! Now I have something else to add to my "to-do" list. Thanks for sharing the sweet tips!


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## TomH

Great job on the "how to". I didn't know beans about tuning up a Tyco CH, much less which chassis to look for. Thanks. TomH


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## grungerockjeepe

No prob guys. Ive been doing this same mod for at least 5 years, but I just recently got my carcass to Best Buy and got a good camera. Ill be showing my braid conversion for the CH/HP2 and also a few mods for the HP-7 soon.


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## TomH

cool deal, I am in the middle of building a routed track, (now, if I can just get the grass to DIE!) The braid conversion would be right up my alley for sure. I Googled around a bit. Is that Mabuchi motor in the CH a HT-50?


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## Bill Hall

What a great read and excellently assembled tute Jeeper! 

So my clunker CH's arent just rail grinders after all????

Enjoyed your new camera work and concise text. Thanks for taking the time!


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## martybauer31

Wow.... Great stuff! Thanks for giving me yet another project to work on. 

Well done!

Marty


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## grungerockjeepe

TomH--I dont know what the designation on that mabuchi motor is. I do know that the magnets are stronger, the arms are different, and the HT-50 will snap into the chassis (the bulkhead bushings are the same size, unlike on the HP-2 which are larger) but it doesnt have the cutouts in the motor box for the flux collectors. Ill be showing off the braid conversion soon. It builds on the pickup assembly mods shown here, and its pretty idiot simple from there. Hell, its even reversible to the ski setup if you want. 

Bill, youre right these definitely have a lot of untapped potential. Thats the reason for the whole thread is so these cars can be raced and enjoyed the way they were meant to be.


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## clausheupel

*What a great tutorial!!!*

:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

Thanks a lot for that superb, illustrated write-up!!!

I always liked most of my HP2 TYCOs, but never really knew (nor cared) why some of them run better than others. Now I not only know what to look out for in the future, but also what one can DO to them...!!!

Thankful greetings from Germany,

Claus


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## slotcarman12078

Excellent tutorial Grunge!! I have a couple of these chassis that won't run right... The mystery has been solved, and a few modifications have been added to my to do list!! Thank you!!!! :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:


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## hojoe

Thanks for posting all the info. This is the first thread in the Tuning Tips section that I have enjoyed.
hojoe


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## grungerockjeepe

glad you guys are picking up a few things, sharing discoveries is the whole point of this thread. Soon as I score a virgin HP-7 or 2 (all mine are modded) Ill share some tips on those too. Again, my braided pickup conversion tutorial is coming....


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## WesJY

WOW!! you should write a book on all Tyco's chassis!! I am gonna re read it again when i get back from vacation! Just freakin awesome and I cant wait to try it! i do have alot of hp2, hp7 and ch chassis !! 

Wes


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## grungerockjeepe

I have a process for HP-7s too. Its not nearly as involved but soon as I get a few more untouched pieces in hand Ill be posting on those too.


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## NTxSlotCars

What a great tuning thread! I always new these cars had potential, but no one ever knew what the heck they were looking at. When we tried racing them, all we knew was that some ran so much better than others that it wouldnt be fair to have a race class of CHs. Now I know.

Rich :thumbsup:


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## bobhch

*Great Tyco chassis mods...*

grunge,

Your new camera and this thread are great! Will have to try this on a few of my Tyco Chassis sitting in the wings waiting for some Dawgs.

Bob...very usefull information (Thank you!)...zilla-


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## martybauer31

Another question for you grunge... where do you get the mabuchi upgrade motors? Also, have you seen this guys stuff, just wondering if it's any good or not?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=220434352502

I hadn't heard of racers edge stuff before, wondering if this might be a way to go as well.

I found I had 4 of the original HP-2's with the green wire arms, so maybe they aren't a total loss, but I am wanting to give them the "treatment", I need something to do. 

Thanks again for the great articles!

Marty


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## grungerockjeepe

No worries, Marty. Nothing like sharing a hot tip on something like this and seeing it work for others like it does for me. Mabuchi motors come in a lot of CH/HP2s right from tyco. You just have to get lucky, although theyre pretty common. I bought a racers edge redwire HT-50 motor to put into a Riggen repro chassis and it runs nice and smooth, his zapped magnets do put out a bit more torque. Im sure he could work up a couple CH motors for you though, the HT-50 tycopro style motor isnt THAT different from whats in the CH.


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## martybauer31

So the guy, that I linked on ebay is the racers edge dude? Or do you have a link to a website for this guy?

I did the work up on one of these cars and it picked up about .5 seconds on a lap. pretty cool stuff. I have to admit I had no idea how much fun these cars are!

Thanks again,

Marty


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## grungerockjeepe

dunno if he has a website or not, but he is on the 'bay a lot.


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## resinmonger

I think the racer's edge guy used to have his own site but he only has the ebay listing now. I have bought from him and he is on my great to deal with list. He has a way of getting more out of a Tyco Pro than I thought possible.

Russ the Hutt


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## martybauer31

Good to know, thanks Russ!

This thread, the one grunge just did on the braided pick ups and the fray car thread NEED to be stickied! 

Too much good info in here, this has given me yet another car to play with darn it!


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## NTxSlotCars

This thread is brought to you in part by...









*The racers edge.*


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## sjracer

I mainly drag race my cars. My question is are the newer gears better than older ones for dragging. I remember years ago Tyco had a hop up kit of sorts for racing.


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## ParkRNDL

Another late thanks for this thread. I have a bunch of these chassis, mostly under Camaros and Trans Ams, and they could all benefit from this wisdom... and I plan to use the info in the HP-7 thread also. very well done tutorials!

--rick


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## copperhead71

Thanks to all for this post!!!More help for me!!ENTER TYCO!!


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## xycarp

This forum rocks!


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## XracerHO

Grunge, Thanks for sharing a Great Tutorial!! Have to work on these chassis which only considered as collector mounts! Keep the how to's coming, always appreciate learning new techniques. ..RL


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## slotnewbie69

just scored some tycos for free from my afx buddy.it's really nice knowing he likes to unload all his unwanted tyco stuff on me!sigh...a good friend indeed.when i get some better light and magnification i want to try these mods.i have the quad flux chassis,and they slide great.especially the one with no mags!
oh and one more thing!all the tycos he has traded me so far had the white boots on them!


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## grungerockjeepe

Hey Newbie, if you have some curvehugger chassis to experiment with, be sure to check out this thread: http://www.hobbytalk.com/bbs1/showthread.php?t=257624 Wait till you see how these chassis run after you do this conversion!


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## NTxSlotCars

Bumpin this thread up cause I'm fixin to use it.


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## gonegonzo

Can this mod be done on the HP 7 as well ?

Gonzo


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## joegri

man this is interesting! the grunger really has it down. after reading this many times i,ve decieded to look for and bid on some curve hugger on ebay i also started looking for replcaement skis/shoes but it looks like they mmight be hard to locate.see what you did tex now i gotta change gears and try some new stuff. i did check out the superbird body for this type of car could look pretty cool flyin down the back strech on my trak. now i,m screwed!


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## Ralphthe3rd

I'm new here, and a little late to this thread, but it's Brilliant ! :thumbsup
Kudos to the OP....ahhh- do they have a Kudos Button on this forum


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## kiwislotcar

*tyco hp2 axle/crown replacement*



grungerockjeepe said:


> I generally swap out the rear axle with a tyco 440 piece since its knurled to grip the crown gear and slightly wider.
> 
> Have always wanted to get my tyco HP2 curvehugger chassis from when I was a kid back up and running again. I discovered this awesome thread and thought I had struck gold with the information I could use a tyco 440 axle & crown gear, you see I have a few original HP2 rear axles but all have broken crown gear.
> I have the grey chassis, dual flux collectors open crown gear box version of the HP2, there is a photo earlier in this thread where my version is labelled version D.
> 
> So anyhow I removed the rear axle from my tyco 440X2 as shown in the photo I have attached, I then tried to insert this into my HP2 but found that the crown gear is far too big and so there is not room in the chassis for it.
> 
> So I'm wondering is there something I missed or misunderstood or is there another solution to a compatible crown gear replacement for my curvehugger.


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## kiwislotcar

Oh yeah I forgot to say that to the best I can determine from the internet everything suggests that the 440 and 440X2 have exactly the same crown gear and axle, I checked many different sources because this seemed like the obvious reason I had no luck with my HP2 but I found diagrams that listed the same part number for the 440 and 440X2 and rear axle and crown spares been sold as for use in 440's and 440X2's.


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## slotcardan

i can answer this:

in 1980 The curvehugger was update to this version









This version of the curvehugger used the same Gear ratio as the tyco 440 chassis that was yet to come out.

so this car used the 440x2 gear set. 

understand the curvehugger name was used from 1974 till 1982ish, and the chassis went through 4 major revisions.

Now in 78-79 you had this version









Notice the gear cutout in the back of the chassis: this allowed you to use the speed gear kit on the curvehugger which was the same gear ratio as the later 440 and curvehugger chassis, the cutout allowed fitting the later larger spur gear on the chassis.

in a similar Vein, Early Tyco pro chassis would be Cut by hand to produce the same open window under the spur gear to again allow for a larger spur gear. this allowed a lower ratio for use with modified motors.

modified motors, Spin faster by have less torque so you must compensate with a lower gear ratio to make up for the torque loss, allowing better use of the higher RPMS a mod motor can generate.

If you used what tyco called a speed kit with a stock motor the car would in fact go slower, this confused many customers and tyco stopped making the kits early on because it was not understood that the speed kit was only to be used with aftermarket or modified or hand wound motors, and not the stock motor that the cars came with.

things get a little confusing because as the motors progressed through the years they became more powerful, and eventually the design changed from the box motor to the inline motors. The curvehugger early on also had motor flux plates which were not needed later with more powerful stock motors, its also why the gear ratio was changed in 1980 since the stock motor power was updated.

there was also the industry shift to using dedicated traction magnets in addition to the magnet traction the motor usually generated on the track rails.

there was also the Electrical change on lighted cars from a Series load with diode drop to parallel load, to confuse things more.


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## kiwislotcar

Sorry I'm a bit confused as to exactly what you are saying, are you saying that my 78-79 version can use the crown gear from a 440 but not a 440X2?


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## Bill Hall

KSC, 

Your "early" chassis requires a modification (relief) to enable it to run the later crown. The point is that without the motor upgrade to compliment the gear change you'll decrease performance. 

Great stuff Dan, I always feel a little less "Tyco ignorant" after you post. Thanx for the enlightenment.


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## kiwislotcar

Where I got confused was I could not find any mention in the original post that said you could use the 440 crown and axle only with the 1980 version of the HP2. 
So that been said does anybody know of any other substitute or am I stuck with using the original gear for this only.


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## kiwislotcar

Slotcardan, my 78-79 version(as shown in your photo) is lighted with a parallel circuit light, I was surprised to recently see a photo online of a diode included in earlier versions and now you say it was in series, that really surprises me but that would explain why I have seen it mentioned elsewhere that a HP2 with a bulb is a lot slower, I thought this was just a myth but I now know it is rooted in truth even if the distinction that only the early version with the diode was affected is mostly lost.


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## NTxSlotCars

Great info Dan!
These chassis aren't given much credit,
but with a little work they sure are fun.


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## slotcardan

I guess i should clarify, 440 refers to the 440 magnum, 440X2 and 440X3 chassis. They came in narrow and wide version of the chassis but the rear axle and ratio is the same including the pinion gear the 440 came out in like 1982 and by 1986 was in the 440x2 version then in late 1990s turned into the X3 version.

there really isn't much of a difference between the X2 and X3 but there is a difference on the chassis and traction magnets for the original 440 sometimes called the 440x1

the chassis for 440x2 has names like HPx2 and widepan tacked on the ends.

-----

Most people ditched the lighted diode circuit board when they changed the contact shoe plate on the front. the contact between the motor and the shoes is horrible and the little daughter board made it worse. 

There was a rhyme and reason to the original board.

The original Bulbs used for the Tyco pro and pre 1978 curvehugger was a 9 volt version the diode drop basically lowered the voltage to the bulb a little to make it last a little longer and also not melt the body.

a lighted car will always run slower then a unlite car due to the bulb stealing power from the motor load(unless you convert to LED lights)

later tyco switched to a 12-18volt bulb, so they just got rid of the diode drop and soldered the bulb to the motor leads. YES the newer bulbs did melt the body after a while of play. Trust me those little bulbs turn the car body into an easy bake oven after 20 minutes.

there is no advantage to either bulb type or hookup, both steal power. the original setup is a little worse because if the bulb burned out the car would not move forwards, only in reverse due to the diode drop. So i guess tyco could of milked kids for money because the bulb would blow the car would stop moving and mommy and daddy took you to toysrus for a new lighted car.

non-lighted cars are of course much faster, and getting rid of the diode drop just made the car easier to maintain. 

there was a note given with early lighted sets, Not to use the speed limiter clips with the lighted cars this was because the speed limiters + the lights on the cars drew the power down so far that the cars didn't move.

you could compensate for a lighted car by upping the voltage to 24 volts instead of 18 and gain back the speed lost.

or go faster on the fly and just snip the light bulb out of the chassis.

or switch to LED and have brighter lights with almost no power draw, and they never burn out, or get hot.





kiwislotcar said:


> Slotcardan, my 78-79 version(as shown in your photo) is lighted with a parallel circuit light, I was surprised to recently see a photo online of a diode included in earlier versions and now you say it was in series, that really surprises me but that would explain why I have seen it mentioned elsewhere that a HP2 with a bulb is a lot slower, I thought this was just a myth but I now know it is rooted in truth even if the distinction that only the early version with the diode was affected is mostly lost.


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## kiwislotcar

slotcardan said:


> there is no advantage to either bulb type or hookup, both steal power.
> 
> non-lighted cars are of course much faster, and getting rid of the diode drop just made the car easier to maintain.
> 
> there was a note given with early lighted sets, Not to use the speed limiter clips with the lighted cars this was because the speed limiters + the lights on the cars drew the power down so far that the cars didn't move.
> 
> you could compensate for a lighted car by upping the voltage to 24 volts instead of 18 and gain back the speed lost.
> 
> or go faster on the fly and just snip the light bulb out of the chassis.
> 
> or switch to LED and have brighter lights with almost no power draw, and they never burn out, or get hot.


Very interesting history there slotcardan, thanks.

I am not sure that I quite agree on the lighted cars always been slower, in a car using a parallel circuit bulb that would only be the case if your power supply was not able to provide enough amps for both the bulb and the motor. In a parallel circuit the voltage across the motor is not changed by the other components in parallel so it still receives the same current as if it was the only component in circuit.


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## slotcardan

nothing to do with power supply, a light bulb has almost no resistance compared to a motor which may be in the 35 to 3.5 Ohm range.

Electricity always take the path of least resistance. in parallel the power will want to go through the bulb and not the motor. in series wiring you have 2 loads together so everything drags down plus the old system used a diode in line as well dragging power down over .7 volts.

An LED needs a current limiter in the form of a resistor. you need a 470 ohm to 1k resistor in series with the LED. the led is then placed in parallel with the motor so the power then favors the motor which again is in the 35ohm to 3.5 ohm range. 

No matter how much power or amps you pump into a system using a motor and a light load in parallel the electricity will always go for the bulb until the bulb burns out then the electricity will have no choice but to feed through the motor to reach ground.

That is why for lighting nothing beats a LED light source.


Now you might say OK i'll just place a resistor inline with the light bulb well the problem is the amp draw of the bulb can be over .5 amps so you would need a 5 Watt resistor to properly restrict the Bulb without catching fire. a 5 watt resistor is heavier then the HO scale slot car chassis, its also half the size of the chassis.

To avoid Heat you can then go for a Diode drop instead. each diode drops voltage about .5-.7 volts, so you can put 2 signal diodes in series to the feed the bulb and cause enough of a restriction that the motor is the desired load. in that case the bulb will now be dim and defeat the propose of the bulb lighting the track surface.

by comparison the Amp draw of a LED is 20-30 Milliamps, you can get away with a 1/4 Watt resistor or a 1/8 Watt resistor which is a little bigger then a grain of rice and weighs less then 1/4 Gram. in this configuration at 20 volts the light will be brighter then any normal bulb, have very tiny amp draw and create very little heat under the body shell. so the car will not slow down as it does with a normal bulb. you are looking at a 470Milliamp difference in load.


Now most power supplies are rated from .3 to 1 amp so you can imagine how dragged down the power gets with 2 cars and 2 motors, 2 bulbs, so upping the amperage on the power supply will obviously help things to a point. once your supplying enough power to the cars to properly feed the motor and bulbs the electricity will still favor the bulb instead of the motor, So place another car on the track without a bulb and the other car may be twice as fast no matter what amps and volts is supplied.


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## TomH

this needs to stay on the front page....bump


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## robertesch

This is a great upgrade to a chassis that I have always been partial to. My question to anyone out there is does anyone know where to find pickup assemblies for the HP2 Curvehuggers? Once in a while I can find shoes and springs and even Tycopro pickups, but not for the Curvehuggers. Any help would be awesome.


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## vickers83

Check this item number on ebay 141017417798 :wave:


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## alpink

Robert, PM me. I have one of those units with slightly used pick up shoes.


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## robertesch

Vickers83 thanks. I will check that out. 
Thanks to everyone for helping me. I have always liked Tyco's Curvehuggers and have many of those cars still from my childhood in various states of function. Parts have always been hard to find, especially after Tyco went to the 440 chassis. Slot cars are not very popular where I am so most hobby stores around here carry nothing. This thread has made me excited about pulling my cars out again.
Thanks again.


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## grungerockjeepe

kiwislotcar said:


> Where I got confused was I could not find any mention in the original post that said you could use the 440 crown and axle only with the 1980 version of the HP2.
> So that been said does anybody know of any other substitute or am I stuck with using the original gear for this only.


Im just now seeing this, but the crown gear/gear saver from the 440 chassis wont work in any CH without some SERIOUS modification. The pinion gear can work on the later HP-2 and in fact Ive swapped it on most all of mine since the stock part is notorious for cracking. For the gearset on the HP-2, yes you have to use the stock part. You can trim down a Lifelike piece but its a bit wonky. You COULD remove the traction magnets and all the stuff that holds them in place to use a 440X2 rear axle/gearset if you don't mind going without traction magnets. And for clarification, I mentioned using the axle SHAFT from the 440 on earlier curvehuggers, to get the wider track and knurled section to lock in the crown gear. Sorry for the confusion!


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## smallscalebill

grungerockjeepe said:


> Im just now seeing this, but the crown gear/gear saver from the 440 chassis wont work in any CH without some SERIOUS modification. The pinion gear can work on the later HP-2 and in fact Ive swapped it on most all of mine since the stock part is notorious for cracking. For the gearset on the HP-2, yes you have to use the stock part. You can trim down a Lifelike piece but its a bit wonky. You COULD remove the traction magnets and all the stuff that holds them in place to use a 440X2 rear axle/gearset if you don't mind going without traction magnets. And for clarification, I mentioned using the axle SHAFT from the 440 on earlier curvehuggers, to get the wider track and knurled section to lock in the crown gear. Sorry for the confusion!


great chassis! i have NOS HP-2 crown gears available. gray delrin material. nice and quite. long lasting. 10 for $20.00 $2.50 shipping. smalls


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