# Tips for hopping up Slimline chassis



## slotrod65 (Dec 4, 2005)

Does anyone have any specific tips for making the slimline a better runner?

An HOWorld article mentions using thunderslims brushes. Does anyone have any other tips.

I am not looking for a screamer, just something to up performance to a reasonable point.....

Fred


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## Bill Hall (Jan 6, 2007)

Removing ANY friction is very important.

Get that the gear mesh and axle clearance nice and free. Lap and buff til she's freewheeling. Pay extra attention to the pinion and crown mesh. If it feels "gritchy" it'll really way-lay a slimmy. 

Double check that your wheels and tires are perfect. Cant build or maintain speed if your wheels arent rolling smoothly or contacing correctly.

Shoe tuning to minimize any drag but still keeping good current flow. If you have extra magnets try to match up the best pair you can muster. The vast majority are anemic at best. Surface the comm plates. Be extra careful if you decide to crank up the brush pressure...doesnt take much to cook a slimmy!

All the usual pancake stuff. As the slimmy doesnt have as much grunt to start with; it's a finer line and the evil forces of friction can drag them down quickly. Especially when multiple problems are in play.


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## slotrod65 (Dec 4, 2005)

Thanks Bill,

So... 1) Eliminate friction, check...

Is it worth having the arm re-wound due to the anemic magnet strength? Is it worth having the magnets zapped at my local 1/24 raceway?

Thanks!!
Fred


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## vaBcHRog (Feb 19, 2003)

Go for the magnet zapping anything to improve their strength. Friction Friction and Friction. Besides weak magnet this biggest problem with slim-lines is the rear crown gear gear boss clearance. Almost all are too tight and cause too much friction. Here is a good check. Take your best running standard TJET. Remove the gear clamp and the ideler gear then reinstall the gear clamp. Spin your rear wheels notice how well they spin free. Now do the same on your slim-line. Keep working the rear crown gear till it is just as smooth. If you are lazy and want to try something quick. Pull of the crown gear and replace it with a JL/AW TJET crown gear the gear boss is smaller. Now position the rera wheels to take the excess slop out. Now I put mine on a break in track that allows the rear wheels to move and go to 12 vdc. I then take a small bathroom cup with some brasso and a paint brush. I run the chassis for 10 min slowly added some Brasso to the gear train till it runs quite. Clean everything up oil good and add some Thunder Slims and you car should be running good. Two things you should notice on short straights it should out run most TJETS but on longer straights 12 - 16 ft the TJET will pull away this is do to the lower gear ratio on the slim-line. If your tires and wheels are true it should habg with any TJET through the corners. JW has some machine Indy Wheels and tires but they are not on his site last time I looked.

Also a lot of slim-line chassis have a defect in the pickup spring area. One of the plastic nubs is longer than the other and need to be trimmed you will be able to tell by pushing on the pickup, you feel the bad one easily.

Roger Corrie


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## SCJ (Jul 15, 1999)

We raced this class for several years in our HO club.......the first thing we would do is stretch the arm hole where it passes through the bottom of the chassis. We found these little chassis to run HOT and this hole (under heat) would often shrink just enough to bind the arm a bit.....a simple aug (sp?) pushed through to increase the size of the hole worked best.

Bang for the buck, thunderslims are your bestbet....but I always had good luck running the cars with AJ's molded silicone tires on aluminium wheels, the added weight seems to smooth the car out.

-------------------------
www.SlotCarJohnnies.com


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## afxgns (Jul 6, 2006)

if rules alow, Cut the rear of the chassis and switch the crown side for side.
Then run the thing backwards. They ALL run better backwards.
AHH, You don't believe me? try running any slimmy backwards. It's the angle of the brush tensioners.

Tim


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## raypunzel (Jul 24, 2005)

*silicones bonded to AJ's aluminum eh?*

Johnnie,
Where can one still get the AJ's aluminum wheels with silicones bonded??? Been kissin up to Bob Haines lately or what? Seriously, I would be interested.
RAy


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## SCJ (Jul 15, 1999)

raypunzel said:


> Johnnie,
> Where can one still get the AJ's aluminum wheels with silicones bonded??? Been kissin up to Bob Haines lately or what? Seriously, I would be interested.
> RAy


REH hasn't had any bonded silicone wheel sets (for HO scale) in several decades that I'm aware of.

However, if you were to look at seller scj-toys  on the bay you would see someone who has been selling off some of the thousands of unique and some very rare NOS items from hundreds of hobby shop buy outs over the years.......To include bonded silicone wheel sets!

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www.SlotCarJohnnies.com


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## Marty (Oct 20, 1999)

SCJ said:


> We raced this class for several years in our HO club.......the first thing we would do is stretch the arm hole where it passes through the bottom of the chassis. We found these little chassis to run HOT and this hole (under heat) would often shrink just enough to bind the arm a bit.....a simple aug (sp?) pushed through to increase the size of the hole worked best.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


HEY!!!!! I thought we weren't allowed to modify the chassis at all?!?!

I miss that class! We had stock (at least mine were) Slim-Lines running same as or more laps then stock skinny silicone tire T-Jets. T-Jets had a SLIGHT edge on long straights but the Slim-Lines were far superior in the turns. MOO

Marty


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## videojimmy (Jan 12, 2006)

I use thunderbrushes and I also put rare earth magnets behind the regular magnets, that seemed to help quite a bit


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## Dragula (Jun 27, 2003)

We run cut down brush cups,shunts,braids and zap the best set of magnets we can find,remember,a magnet is like a cup,it will only hold what it will hold,the amount of cobalt designates how much strength they will have,just my dragstrip tuning tips.Oh,and like everyone else said..FRICTION,ream the holes and get them loose.
DRAGjet


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## weirdjack (Apr 11, 2007)

Marty said:


> HEY!!!!! I thought we weren't allowed to modify the chassis at all?!?!


Remember, the rules specified we could not "DRILL" or "CUT" the chassis. The rules said nothing about using an awl to swage the chassis armature shaft hole open just a little without removing any chassis material. I did that myself during those series. I also would put a wire wheel in the dremel and spin up the rear top plate gear (and all the rest of the gear train) with it for a bit to settle all the parts in. The other thing I found very helpful on SlimLines was to slightly sand the back of the crown gear bolster to give more play between it and the pinion gear. Keep friction to a minimum. Then wide tires on the rear and skinny tires up front, whitewalls always worked best for me. :thumbsup: 
Of course, it always helps to have a lightweight fenderless Hot Rod body of some sort on the chassis and number it using only a license plate decal....to save weight  
I loved the S.L.O.W. class back then! Remember how laps were usually about the same between SlimLines and the modified T-Jet class on that 21st Century track. Those Slim puppies can HANDLE!
WJ


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