# Tomy SG+ tuning tips



## Montoya1 (May 14, 2004)

Anyone got any other than the endbell tweak?


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## Dragula (Jun 27, 2003)

Shoe tension,bending the shoe hanger over to prevent loss shoes,silk mesh gears,matching magnets,truing the comm..etc etc.
Chris


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## mtyoder (Jan 3, 2004)

it's possible to tweak the endbell even more with some slight cutting and or sanding. If done correctly most people don't even notice. Study the chassis for a little while around the endbell, you'll see what I mean. If your really up for some "hair pulling out fun" you can tear it down and tweak on the brush springs/hangers to make more tension. Stretching the pickup shoe springs a little bit helps too. If your running stock rear tires sand them down. It's possible to get those handling pretty well. While your at it sand the front tires too. Get the chassis as close to the rails as possible. If your running a hard plastic body try to find the lightest one with a low stance. The Johnny lightning monte carlo (I think it's a monte) nascar body is one of the best I've found. It's amazing the difference a body can make. The lower and lighter the better is my rule of thumb for race bodies. Listen to Dragula on the gears, the smoother they mesh the more power you have to the track. This gets overlooked a lot. It's the biggest obstacle when your trying to free up power in tjets and magnatractions.


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## Dragula (Jun 27, 2003)

mtyoder said:


> it's possible to tweak the endbell even more with some slight cutting and or sanding. If done correctly most people don't even notice. Study the chassis for a little while around the endbell, you'll see what I mean. If your really up for some "hair pulling out fun" you can tear it down and tweak on the brush springs/hangers to make more tension. Stretching the pickup shoe springs a little bit helps too. If your running stock rear tires sand them down. It's possible to get those handling pretty well. While your at it sand the front tires too. Get the chassis as close to the rails as possible. If your running a hard plastic body try to find the lightest one with a low stance. The Johnny lightning monte carlo (I think it's a monte) nascar body is one of the best I've found. It's amazing the difference a body can make. The lower and lighter the better is my rule of thumb for race bodies. Listen to Dragula on the gears, the smoother they mesh the more power you have to the track. This gets overlooked a lot. It's the biggest obstacle when your trying to free up power in tjets and magnatractions.


I agree wholeheartedly!Maybe you should start out with a hot runner..like one of my AFX CHINA marked.grey dot magnet screamers!
Chris


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## Hornet (Dec 1, 2005)

Chris ya forgot to mention the old grey dot tractions are low level poly mag's not ceramic's.
If your using stock G parts bend the bottom of the hanger where the shoe clips in towards the front of the car,helps keep the shoes on better

Deane:Here's a few endbell tricks for a G if your interested,including a decent pic of BSRT's custom tweaked endbell,and On-Slots replacement brushes for a G,way cheaper to rebuild the endbell then buy new ones,but you should already know that,lol

http://www.canho.ca/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=163

http://www.canho.ca/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=138


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## Dragula (Jun 27, 2003)

But those gray dot magnets are legal factory equipment,and i did tell him to bend the shoe hanger forward.
Chris


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## Hornet (Dec 1, 2005)

Better go read your post again Chris,ya told him to bend the hanger,but nothing about which way to bend it.
Try flipping the White motor magnet upside down,and grind the notch at the front of the shoe deeper,helps get the front end down.
If your running old stock G+ chassis's drill the pick-up shoe tit's with a small bit and insert a piece of .015" piano wire into the hole,helps stiffen up the old G+'s weak shoe tit's that are prone to breakage.
Run a Tyco rear axle,the smaller diameter Tyco axle helps free up the G abit,might be wise to drill the chassis for axle retention if you do this,as the smaller axle tends to pop outta the chassis easier.
Depending on track length,try running a 7/22 or 7/21 gear ratio.
Another trick i used to do was strip an old arm down till all that was left was the com and shaft,take the wire and arm blanks completely off,insert this into the brushes when your tweaking them,with everything off an old arm,you can actually see the brushes sitting on the com,and it helps when your tweaking them.
BTW,the modified endbells i listed above aren't really for a stock arm,more suited to the higher end Polymer and Neo magnet cars with custom arms.
If you don't have a guass meter,an old bolt and some washers makes an okay magnet matcher,just keep stacking washers till the magnet won't lift the bolt,and use this to compare and match your magnets.
I'm assuming you knew all this anyways Deane, :wave:


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## Dragula (Jun 27, 2003)

All good tips!Once you get things down a bit,you will get to pick these magnet car guy's brains..kinda nice huh? :wave:


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## Hornet (Dec 1, 2005)

LOL,i haven't ran a G for close to 10 years Chris,so some of my tips might be a little outdated  

These days i'd run one of the aftermarket rear arm bushings,but if your stuck using the old Super G+'s stock rear arm bushing,they are notrious for high speed arm shake and spinning in the chassis,i used to lay the bushings flat on their sides on my anvil (any good heavy piece of flat steel will probably work),then lay another piece of 1/4" flat steel on top of the bushing,then i'd give it a good swat with my 3lb mini sledge,after that,i'd score the ouside of the bushing with an exacto knife hard enough to leave little ridges/gouges,then push a stock Tyco rear axle through the bushing hole,this expanded the bushing usually enough to lock it solidly into place,and the knurling on the Tyco axle helped create knurling inside the bushing,which trapped a better layer of oil for the arm to ride on.
Like i said,now a days i'd run an aftermarket bushing or better yet a bearing set-up :thumbsup:


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## Dragula (Jun 27, 2003)

Hornet said:


> LOL,i haven't ran a G for close to 10 years Chris,so some of my tips might be a little outdated
> 
> These days i'd run one of the aftermarket rear arm bushings,but if your stuck using the old Super G+'s stock rear arm bushing,they are notrious for high speed arm shake and spinning in the chassis,i used to lay the bushings flat on their sides on my anvil (any good heavy piece of flat steel will probably work),then lay another piece of 1/4" flat steel on top of the bushing,then i'd give it a good swat with my 3lb mini sledge,after that,i'd score the ouside of the bushing with an exacto knife hard enough to leave little ridges/gouges,then push a stock Tyco rear axle through the bushing hole,this expanded the bushing usually enough to lock it solidly into place,and the knurling on the Tyco axle helped create knurling inside the bushing,which trapped a better layer of oil for the arm to ride on.
> Like i said,now a days i'd run an aftermarket bushing or better yet a bearing set-up :thumbsup:


Thats the first upgrade for our Super G drag cars..too much walk and radial unbalance with that silly stock oilite.
Chris


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## Hornet (Dec 1, 2005)

Another old tip is to closely look at the bottom of the busbar/pick-up shoe hanger,if it shows any track rubbage,carefully clearance it till it doesn't rub the rails.
When it's rubbing the rails it's usually bouncing off the endbell contacts,and mashing your fancy bends in the endbell ears.
Try to bend the ears of the bell so that you have them laying/rubbing flat on the pick-up shoe hanger.
Another old trick is a dab of silver solder on the endbell ears,that one i never really found much improvement with if you had everything properly clearenced.
A little dab of solder on the side of the bell where there's another electrical point doesn't usually hurt though.
If you crash lots and have a habit of blowing off pick-up shoes,and losing pick-up shoe springs,you can solder them to the pick-up shoe holder.
Depending on how loose your rules are,if any,lol,you can substitute a shunt wire,run it down inside the shoe spring,it's a bit of a fight,but a small enough shunt braid will work,flare it out at the bottom of the spring,between the top of the shoe and the bottom of the spring (optional to solder it to the bottom of spring),then run it back over the top of the pick-up shoe holder,and jam it between the endbell ears and the back of the shoe holder.
There's lots of tips and tricks out for the old G+,it's been around forever,


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## Montoya1 (May 14, 2004)

Some great stuff.

Some I knew, some I did not. Some is legal here, some not. But all good to know, thanks guys. Keep it comin' !


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## Hornet (Dec 1, 2005)

For an easy axle retention system,that'll work on most cars.
Take old pick-up shoes,cut the slotted end off the shoe,take this horseshoe shaped piece,slide it up over your rear axle,on the outside of the chassis,and bend the ears of your U shaped piece over the top of the chassis,voila you've locked the axle into place with-out drilling a hole in the chassis.
When you mount tires and gears onto axles,add an extra coupl'a of spacers on the gear side,they can ride outside the chassis walls till you need to move them over to compensate for gear wear,saves pulling the wheel off each time you need to shim the gears.
I usually don't run any of the factory gear savers,they add a pile of weight to the rotating mass,instead shim the gears with spacers :wave:


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## mtyoder (Jan 3, 2004)

We need to have a post like this for every type of car (that's worth racing). With cheater and regular tuning tips. Sure keep some secrets to yourself, but everyone has some to share. Then we need hankster to put sticky's on them all so they're easy to find for the newbies. Just a thought.


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## Montoya1 (May 14, 2004)

I tried explaining the end bell tweaks to my mate over the phone but it is tough! Anyody have good before and after images?


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## EBasil (Jan 11, 2000)

*Still the best box-stock racer there is.*

Scott Vargo still maintains a great archive of SG+ tips, HERE. Of course, if you bump up to the evolved G3 cars from BSRT, some of the fastest guys on the planet with those cars are regulars on Scott's Website, Planet of Speed. They're pretty open and willing to get anyone up to race speeds if you ask.


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## Montoya1 (May 14, 2004)

EBasil said:


> Scott Vargo still maintains a great archive of SG+ tips, HERE. Of course, if you bump up to the evolved G3 cars from BSRT, some of the fastest guys on the planet with those cars are regulars on Scott's Website, Planet of Speed. They're pretty open and willing to get anyone up to race speeds if you ask.


Cheers EB!


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## Slott V (Feb 3, 2005)

EBasil said:


> Scott Vargo still maintains a great archive of SG+ tips, ....


...Ya what he said! ^^^ :thumbsup:


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## Hornet (Dec 1, 2005)

Boy this faded out pretty fast.
EB post some tips,you've been running G's since god was knee high to a grasshopper,so ya must have a couple :thumbsup:


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## EBasil (Jan 11, 2000)

Oh, not even, but thanks! When I got back into slotcars, it was with SG+ cars because my wife called around SoCal and Milt Surrat told her to go Tomy. When it was time to learn up on tuning, I had a session with a really fast dude that turned me on to the Planet of Speed and Vargo's sites. I never got much past the beers, BBQ and racin' stage, but I know enough to know that Vargo's sites still contain the best basic tips and the fastest of SG+ platform racers that will share tips. There's no "hide the ball" with those guys.

That said, my best tips are for "cheap speed", since my now-defunct racing group was focused on what might be termed hot-stock: slip-on tires, clip on bodies for the most part. Tune 'em, tweak 'em, keep 'em clean and (for the beautiful GTP cars) lower 'em. :thumbsup:


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## Hornet (Dec 1, 2005)

Cheap speed ain't that what it's all about, :thumbsup: .

Here's a couple differant ways to cheaply match magnets,at the very bottom there's a picture of a easily built compass magnet matcher :wave: 

http://www.geocities.com/sacramentoho/motormagnet.html


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## Hornet (Dec 1, 2005)

Thanks for these tips Tom 


In my car in S/S class....I use Flanged arm rear bushing metal....or plastic, plastic is lighter and preferred. I remove front bulk head bronze bushing and replace with plastic bushing. also you can use bronze bushing....but I use a 1/16 drill and make the whole just a hair larger. 
i use a Gold end bell or just the replacement gold brushes......you need to tweak the brushes alittle.....hopefully you already do this...hard to explain....but I can try if needed. I cut a slot in small flat screw driver to tweak the brushes. 

Before racing the car I put in on the breakin box at 3 volts for 1 hour. After breaking it in. I put the car on the Dyno and make sure that it reads 8 or higher on the meter. If so the car is ready to race. 
I use 7-21, 7-22 gear ratio.....I like the gears from slottech the best and by them alrady mounted on the griptite axle & Tyco pinion works the best 
I use spacers on the back of the axle gear to get proper mesh....I remove the stock large plastic spacer and throw them away ......... using the spacers on back side of gear only...saves weight. I cut off the nub on the end of pinion so it never hits the gear or axle....by moving the arm back an 
forth. plus saves weight 
I use a .011 pickupshoe spring on the passenger side and .010 on drivers side. use gold pickups and gold chassis tabs when possible. 
I use 432 narrow tires and 338-340 fronts....make sure the front tires are just touching the track....also bent the bottom of the pickup shoe hangers at a 45 degree....it helps hold the shoe on. 
Get your chassis pinned for the rear axle retainer. 
Use G3 wide traction magnets in high down force mode 
That is all I can think of off hand.


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