# Constructive criticism



## 22tall (Jul 28, 2002)

Please fix the axle holes and gear mesh problems.

Way too many chase cars. I liked the old system. Three or even six wts/iwls and 12 regular cars.


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## 22tall (Jul 28, 2002)

Keep a small number of iwheels to be sold individually for those that only want a car or two.


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## videojimmy (Jan 12, 2006)

22tall.... Amen brother!


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## TK Solver (Mar 18, 2004)

Shorten the slot on the Tjet pick-up shoes to restrict the travel. This will keep many cars from hopping out of the track slot during acceleration. I wrap a thin strip of electrical tape there to restrict the travel and others have posted that they use shrink tubing.


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## SwamperGene (Dec 1, 2003)

Check the presses. I think if the gear problems were resolved, the axle holes would be a non-issue. Crooked arm and/or pinion gears are found on every "wiggly" car I've come across, and straightening them cured the jitters. In extreme cases, they don't mesh at all.


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## wheelszk (Jul 8, 2006)

And how many have you come across?


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## SwamperGene (Dec 1, 2003)

Plenty, and surely more in the future. Lil' Wheelsz goat is a shining example of what I speak of.


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## twolff (May 11, 2007)

Front axel slop makes the tires rub the body on the Ford GT I purchased. The only pancake reproductions I've had that had axels that fit were the Fast and Furious Xtractions. About half of the 2 cases I've tried had or quickly developed gear issues.


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## sethndaddy (Dec 4, 2004)

Offer white chassis with white tires plain, so I can put any car on it, I think they look cool.
Make a good compound silicone tire in a wide array of colors and offer them, like the chassis above, as an add on item/ parts.


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## micyou03 (Apr 8, 2003)

I would say that every JL car of mine appreciated some gear straightening, and about 75% really needed it.


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## Captain Fred (Feb 19, 2000)

sethndaddy said:


> Offer white chassis with white tires plain, so I can put any car on it, I think they look cool.
> Make a good compound silicone tire in a wide array of colors and offer them, like the chassis above, as an add on item/ parts.


Good idea! :thumbsup:


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## mopar78 (Sep 23, 2004)

I think the idea of offering the white chassis with the white tires is a great idea.I know i would buy a few.Tonight i saw some on ebay for 17.99,see item #280121198065.I think that's a little high,but i think auto world could come up with a fair price for them if they sold them direct from their web site.


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## 440gtx (May 25, 2005)

I would like to see cars painted actual factory colors. I thought I was going to puke when I saw the purple gtx. I have a 71 gtx and I couldn't wait when I heard that Aw was going to make them. Also whats with the white tops? As a life long MOPAR guy I can't ever remember seeing a 71 Gtx with a white top. That is something that they put on the satalite. The red looks bad also.


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## 22tall (Jul 28, 2002)

TK Solver said:


> Shorten the slot on the Tjet pick-up shoes to restrict the travel. This will keep many cars from hopping out of the track slot during acceleration. I wrap a thin strip of electrical tape there to restrict the travel and others have posted that they use shrink tubing.


You problem is you are too good at tuning. My slow cars don't have that problem . Have you tried folding the top of the shoe back onto itself? It would do the same job as the tape. It also helps correct the problem with SG+ shoes popping off after a crash.


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## 22tall (Jul 28, 2002)

SwamperGene said:


> Check the presses. I think if the gear problems were resolved, the axle holes would be a non-issue. Crooked arm and/or pinion gears are found on every "wiggly" car I've come across, and straightening them cured the jitters. In extreme cases, they don't mesh at all.


Gears are cut to work at specific angles. Change that and efficiency drops.


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## 22tall (Jul 28, 2002)

I am guessing Tom doesn't pick the first six cars he can think of to produce. To cut down number of undesirable bodies maybe put a list of possible cars in with inners. Have folks pick six and mail it back for future releases.


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## SwamperGene (Dec 1, 2003)

22tall said:


> Gears are cut to work at specific angles. Change that and efficiency drops.


I was refering to how they are pressed onto the shaft crooked, not messing with the geometry of any gear itself. Straighten, lap, and index. 

Laptimes show the improvement in efficiency.


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## 22tall (Jul 28, 2002)

Then how does that fix the axle hole problem?


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## SwamperGene (Dec 1, 2003)

When a gear is crooked, it exhibits the same effects as if it were out of round. This wreaks havoc both physically and dynamically throughout the drivetrain. Since 4 of the 5 gears are shaft-mounted, there's only two possible places for the tension to release, the idler gear and the axle.

I have CA on none of my cars, nor the dozens I've serviced for others. It's a cool trick, but why use a bandaid if you know the cure.


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## 22tall (Jul 28, 2002)

SwamperGene said:


> When a gear is crooked, it exhibits the same effects as if it were out of round. This wreaks havoc both physically and dynamically throughout the drivetrain.


This is one of those times where voice communication would be better for both of us. The qoute backs up what I am saying. The large axle hole allows the crown gear to move around adding to the afore mentioned havoc.

Once the motor spins the only outlet of the tension should be the power released by the turning of the wheels. 

The CA tweak is the one we would like to eliminate.

After washing and waxing my 89 Crown Victoria I am very happy that it still looks dang fine. I feel like singing

The motor puts tension on the crown gear
The crown gear puts tension on the idler gear
The idler gear puts tension on the driven gear
The driven gear puts tension on the pinion gear
The pinion gear puts tension on the crown gear
The crown gear puts tension on the rear wheel
And down the track you go

I need sleep


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## SwamperGene (Dec 1, 2003)

lol nice song.

Simply put, the point I'm tring to make is the axle holes are not the cause of the bounce. Under load the axle is going to be forced against it's bushings (the holes). As long as the holes are round and the axle is smooth, there should be no problem if they're not "tight", another force is causing them to move laterally.

This is not a casual observation, alot of thought and testing went into it. It defies logic that we ream stock t-jet holes and run smaller Tyco axles in Super G's with no problems. I had smooth as silk JL runners with plenty of axle slop, and wobbly cars with tight axles. The bounce is typically observed on acceleration, when there is a load on it. It was observed that without the idler gear in, the cars rolled freely with no wobble, but you could see the driven gear moving up and down. All gears were removed and squarely pressed back onto their shafts, using a .005 shim to space them. The wobble was gone, completely. As another test, we took a wobbly (but fast) car and decided to try the CA trick. The wobble was gone but so was the speed, meaning that without a place to go the tension in the geartrain made it too tight. 

It should be noted that the first place to look on these cars is the axle shaft itself, many times the tips are bent. Easy to see if you chuck it in a dremel and look at the tip as it spins up. 

We make it a point to occasionally race these cars with slip-on rear tires being the only modification allowed. We learned alot about setting them up to run good.


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## twolff (May 11, 2007)

I just took my last peice of AW junk out of the jewel case. I expected the gears and the front axel to be "wobbley" and planned on tossing the chassis on the parts bin. I did not think I would be doing the same with the '71 Dodge Charger Stock Car body. You would think that after the 4 wheel drive CanAm they could at least produce cars that fit the chassis. The front end is jacked up so high that it looks like it is doing wheelies around the track. It's probably the fix for the big front axel holes that let the front tires rub the body. There's plenty of clearance for the chassis. I really don't get it. It also looks "smooshed". As in too short and too wide.

It's the real AFX stuff for me from now on. I could have had a NOS AFX Magnatraction chassis for what this junker cost me.


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## JordanZ870 (Nov 25, 2004)

twolff, snap the stabilizer pins out of the body. the nose settles right down. I learned this from Dragula. :thumbsup:


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## micyou03 (Apr 8, 2003)

joez870 said:


> twolff, snap the stabilizer pins out of the body. the nose settles right down. I learned this from Dragula. :thumbsup:



Can you show us a picture od one with this mod. I've been staying away from many of the Xtractions because I don't like the way they sit.
.
.
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And because the T-jets are more fun to run.


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## twolff (May 11, 2007)

micyou03 said:


> Can you show us a picture od one with this mod. I've been staying away from many of the Xtractions because I don't like the way they sit.
> .
> .
> .
> And because the T-jets are more fun to run.


Yes. Please a pic or a more detailed description. I don't see anything that looks like it should be cut off. It's one of these:


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## dlw (Aug 17, 1999)

Twolff, inside that Charger body, on the underside of the hood are two body pins that reach out to the chassis. Take them out, and you can lower the body.


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## SwamperGene (Dec 1, 2003)

Also, on the XT Camaro you can trim the ones in the rear to get rid of the body noise, sometimes it brings the speed up a bit, too (pressure on the gearplate).


:thumbsup:


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## twolff (May 11, 2007)

Ah. I see two spots on the underside of the hood where two pins could have been. They are already gone. The car has to look downright silly with the front end even higher than it is now.

This one isn't like the CanAm (one I was really looking forward to) that looks like ass in the jewel/clam. The Charger looked ok until I put it on the track. Then I noticed all the real estate between the front wheels and the body.

I setup the pickup shoes, gave it a good oiling, and gave it my 9 year-old son.


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