# Slotted for the first time in 15+ years....whew



## 71Rcode (Aug 8, 2004)

Hi guys - you may remember me a few months ago posting on the board a few times, as I was investigating tracks/cars/values of some of this stuff, as I was going through a bit of a time warp. Well, today was my oldest son's fourth birthday, and he got the Tomy International set I bought three months ago. In about five minutes, I set up a long oval with X-tracks on both sides, and off we went. My wife, son, and in-laws. What a blast! Pulled out the early '70s AFX cars - powersliding and ripping through the gears. Just like I remembered. Pulled out a few Tyco slots - super fast, but light - and unstable on the corners at speed. Then the indy cars that came with the set - unbelievable. Light speed - so much fun (but not for four year olds 

My question - X-traction cars were terrible. Bought a handfull of new ones, and they were slow, noisy and the differential/axle gear liked to pull away from the drive gear. Look cool, but run like crap. They slowed down like crazy at the X-track too. Seem to remember reading something about how they don't like the stock tomy controllers. The thunderjet 500s are better, but like to jump the track a bit too easily. Overall, very dissapointed in the 'newer' slots... and will probably sell these off. 

There is just no comparision to the VINTAGE slots, or the new tomy cars. 

Do you guys agree? 

Loving this...my wife too.


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## TX Street Racer (May 8, 2004)

Hey man,welcome back..... :thumbsup: As for the new Xtraction and JLTO 500's.......sometimes they do need some tweaking...even straight from the box. Alot of times those problems with the Xtraction differential gears moving around can be solved by simply taking the gear plate off and pressing the driven gear pin on the rear of the plate a bit. Sometimes these pins aren't pressed on there tight......so take a small nail or punch and slightly tap this pin to make the gear a bit tighter. Also, you might try bending the gear plate clamp a bit to give it some more tension.....then it will hold the gearplate down tighter to the chassis.....and won't allow any slop between the driven gear and crown gear to occour. I've had to do this on a couple of my dad's Xtractions....and it solved the problem. One other thing too that could be wrong is the actual brush tension could be a bit off.......so you might need to tweak those slightly.

As for the JLTO 500 cars coming out of the slot too much........what I like to do with my JLTO's that I run regularly is mount a single neodymium "dot" traction magnet to the rear of the chassis........just super glue one in place on the bare spot of the chassis (the grey area) right inline with the pickup shoe on what would be the right side of the chassis (when the bottom of the chassis is facing you). These magnets can be bought at numerous places....including "Neil's Wheels" in Plano,TX. Just ask for Tjet neo dot traction magnets. These magnets are strong......and will keep your JLTO's down on the track......but the cars could still come off with a bit too much throttle in the corners..........and with a fast car it's a blast because you can still swing the rear end out a bit.....

Anyhow, hold onto those Xtractions and JLTO 500's........they just need a bit of attention to work fine...and will make great runners :thumbsup:


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## AfxToo (Aug 29, 2003)

I agree that the overall production quality of the vintage cars is better than the newer ones. The JL cars can be tuned to perform much better and in fact the XTs aren't that bad from the start and perform somewhat better on average than the Aurora Magnetractions. I'll assume you know how to clean and oil the pancake style cars. Beyond that there are some things to try with the XTs. 

TX mentioned the cluster gear and gearplate thing. Next up is the pickup shoes. The stock XT shoes are eXtremely Thin and are usually not contacting the track rails correctly. Look at the wear pattern. Ideally you want a uniform wear line down the entire contact patch of the shoe, for all slot cars even your Tomys. The XTs use a flat shoe that's virtually impossible to get in full contact with the rails. I usually impart a very slight bend in the XT shoes about midway down the length to at least have the front half of the shoe in better contact with the rails. Eyeball it on a piece of track, then run it and look at the wear pattern. Unfotunately with the XTs you can't always get it perfect because the shoes are so thin they may not hold the adjustments you made and usually have other bends in them. I've tried re-flattenning them before making the first adjustments but it's hard to get them perfect. Do the best you can. The shoes designed for the Aurora AFX cars work much better, but all shoes need some slight tweaking. I'll bet you that your Tomy cars are wearing through the pickups at the toe of their shoes. That's the way they come from the factory.

The next big buggaboo on the XTs is the front wheels and tires not being round enough. Try some tires from your AFX collection or some o-rings of the same size as the tires. Bring a tire to a hardware store and find the closest o-ring to match. Maybe try a couple of sizes. I tend to go slightly smaller. You could replace the wheels but that's when things start to get expensive. If you have some old spare AFX wheels try them out. It's a bit of trial and error but play around with one car until you find the combination of things you have to do to make it acceptable. On home tracks you can usually get them performing well enough even if they are not perfect. The later rounds of XTs are better than the first round.

The JL TJet500s require similar shoe/wheel tuning but as you've seen they are tough to drive with stock controllers. Too much gear. You could try a couple of things. First, try reducing the brush tension a small amount. That means adjusting the brush springs so the brushes sit lower in their holes. Try a small adjustment and test it. Reducing the tension will make the car a bit less jumpy. Too much adjustment will make the car too slow or run too hot. Putting better rear tires (silicone) on the JL TJets will also help, but if you're trying to save a little money you can chuck the stock tires into a Dremel or drill and sand them down just enough to take the factory edge off of them and make them rounder. Sticking to longer track layouts will allow you to run the JL TJets reasonably well with the stock controllers.

If you like the Tomy Super G+ car you will also like the Tyco 440-X2 cars. Not quite as fast as the Tomys but still very fast, fairly quiet, and smooth. The older Tomy 440-X2 cars that don't have any Mattel logo on the packaging are somewhat better than the Tomy/Mattel branded ones. Get them while you can, since Mattel is abandoning the HO slot car line that they bought from Tyco.

The Lifelike cars are also similar to the Tomys in performance. The older Fast Trackers that don't have those extra neo dot traction magnets (M chassis) in front of the rear wheels are an overall better car. The newer ones (T chassis) are faster and are as noisy as a blender. When they break you throw them away because they have few replacable parts.

Remember, all new cars require some adjustments, especially in the pickup shoes.


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## 71Rcode (Aug 8, 2004)

TX - thanks man! Good to be back. It was so much fun sliding those cars around the track....I love slots! Thanks for the tips. Sure thing - simple enough to press the axle gear against the pinion. I was just surprised it needed to be done after 30 seconds of racing. Good tip about using a punch and the plate clamp. The thing is, I'm a tweaker. But as a kid, don't ever remember 'having' to tweak any of my '70s/'80s AFX or Tyco cars. Out of the box, those cars were ready to go. Good tip on the magnet too. I appreciate that. 

AFXToo - thanks for taking the time to respond. Great information here. I probably got so turned off from the 'non performance' of the JL Xtraction and TJets - right out of the box - it's going to be tough to get over. Kinda feel cheated - LOL. Good thing these cars were cheap. 

Yes - I'm good on cleaning the pancake cars. And more great tips on the XT cars - I will try all of these mods to one of them, and see what happens! Got it - slight bend to keep more of the pup shoes against the track rails. Funny thing about wearing out pup shoes. As kids, my brother and I raced all the time. I can only remember a few times (out of about five or so tracks and a dozen cars) that worn shoes 'garaged' a car. Maybe the shoes on these newer cars aren't as long lasting as old stuff? 

Whew - replace the tires too. OK - I can try that. 

JL cars - do mean the gear is too high (as opposed to being too steep? - I know all about steep. My boss 351 has a 3:91...) Got it on the brushes - more modding. You know, I might end up keeping a few of these, and let my son 'mod' them when he gets older. Much rather him do that than mod my vintage cars!

AFXToo - good tip on the 440-X2 cars (without the mattel/tomy logo) on the packaging. Thanks again for taking the time to respond - you guys have much expertise, and I know many will benefit from this. Very best regards, boys. 71Rcode


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## vaBcHRog (Feb 19, 2003)

If you have any Aurora TJETS or Aurora AFX non magnatractions swap out the JL motor magnets for the magnets in you JL Tuff-one. This will grt rifd of the jumpiness and tame them down

Roger Corrie
Virginia Beach, VA


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## noddaz (Aug 6, 1999)

Unfortunatly the JL X-Tractions are well...
Inferior...
Product like that is one of the last things this small hobby needs.
But after you have spent the money you might as well mess with them to get them to run right.
We have had some interesting racing with X-Tractions at a friends house.
Most of the X-Tractions ended up with Aurora armatures so they could keep up with the old Magna-Tractions...
JL/RC2 needs to put a hotter arm in the X-Tractions. They are fast enough, but they don't have th acceleration that is needed.
Scott


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## roadrner (Jul 21, 1999)

Welcome back 71Rcode. As you have read, there are problems and there are fixes. Enjoy 'em all. :thumbsup: rr


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## 71Rcode (Aug 8, 2004)

Thanks guys - more good advice! You know, I gave the yellow hemi cuda (X-traction) a chance (I'd already pulled out the red/white/blue AMX and the blue/blue challenger), and it ran great right out of the box. Sticks quite well too. So, I guess there are hits and misses. 

A couple of other interesting points. I have quite a few late '70s-80s, run-of-the-mill tycos. These cars are fun to drive. They totally get sideways coming out of the corners. Maybe it has to do with the old rubber, but they definitely require a lot of driver input and care. 

Also, I have ONE 'lifetime' slot. It's a yellow boss 302 / or mach 1, can't remember. 1970 model. This thing will flat out run. I can bury the trigger and I can hear the tires just spooling up on this car. And that is at speed going around the track - it's brutal. Lot's of fun to drive. I designated that one 'my' car - LOL. 

So far, lots of fun. Looking forward to doing more racing later. Take care guys. And thanks again. 71Rcode


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## TX Street Racer (May 8, 2004)

71Rcode said:


> Maybe it has to do with the old rubber, but they definitely require a lot of driver input and care.



LOL, put some Wizzard brand silicone tires on the back of those Tycos and see how well they hook...LOLYou'll be letting off that trigger a bit more when you approach the corners :jest:


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## AfxToo (Aug 29, 2003)

Yep, the 30 year Aurora manufacturing and quality assurance still seems to be better. 

Noddaz, which 'old' Aurora arms are you talking about? I think that on average the JL XT arms are as good and generally better than those the run of the mill red tip/gold wire 15 ohm MT arms. If you're talking mean greens it's an entirely different story. The Aurora running gear is smoother too, better gear mesh and shaft alignment. The JL arm has to work a little harder. I've never tried balancing a JL arm to know how good or bad they are.

The JL chassis' and arms in particular are still a bit of a mystery to me. I really wonder how they came up with these designs without some outside help. They must have had some input from knowledgeable people. The extra arm lamination, the domed brushes, strong magnets, and the TuffOnes configuration makes you think that maybe they were concerned about peaking the performance. But then the material composition and construction quality kind of takes back a lot of the intended performance benefits. The net result is pretty good, and when all the planets align you do get a really nice product for the price. But any one of those underlying issues can pop up and bite you in the rear. Fortunately they can be tweaked and tuned to live up to a little more of their design potential.


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## dlw (Aug 17, 1999)

*Tweaking and Tuning*

The JLXT's do need tweaking/tuning on them, but remember, the Auroras needed a little work on them, too. Aside from the out-of-round rims and tires, the gear slipping problem with R1, and the occasional crooked axles, these cars just need to be tuned and lubed. That's what pancake cars need. I think they run very well. Can't wait for the MOPAR set.


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## okracer (Mar 11, 2002)

ok i havnt bought any of the jl thunderjets or x tractions but i was wondering would the afx bodies fit on these im wanting some canam/alms type cars but not wanting the magnet cars i still want them to slide a little so will these bodys interchange


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## TX Street Racer (May 8, 2004)

okracer said:


> ok i havnt bought any of the jl thunderjets or x tractions but i was wondering would the afx bodies fit on these im wanting some canam/alms type cars but not wanting the magnet cars i still want them to slide a little so will these bodys interchange


Howdy, the AFX bodies aren't able to just screw or snap on as they are now....they need to be "screw posted" It's REALLY easy to mount them to your Tjet chassis though. All you need to do is go to a hobby shop and buy some evergreen brand hollow plastic styrene rod material. For best results I suggest you cut a couple of sections of rod material off....say a half inch or so.....thread your Tjet mounting screws into the rod to make it easier to start the screws later. After the rod is threaded, back the screws out, and mount those white plastic rod pieces directly to your Tjet chassis. Now you can take your chassis and put the body overtop of it.........but don't glue the rods yet. Line up the chassis with the body to get it where you want it....and begin to slowly trim the excess rod material so that you body will sit exactly where you want it to on the chassis. Once you get the body to sit where you want it to then you can super glue the rods in place.......and once the glue cures slowly unscrew the Tjet screws from the rod....removing the chassis from the body. 

This is a REALLY easy process.....and can be done to almost any slot car body to convert it to a Tjet chassis powered slot car. I hope that all those directions made sense.......let me know if you need anything clarified. :thumbsup:


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## dlw (Aug 17, 1999)

Okracer, if you don't want to adapt an Afx body for a tjet, but want to use them, just get some X-Traction, or Afx Magnatraction chassis. They're faster, but have the same fish-tailing characteristics as their cousins the tjet and TO chassis.


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## okracer (Mar 11, 2002)

cool that was what i was asking


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