# Tjet axles & pick up shoes & JL chassis



## noddaz (Aug 6, 1999)

OK, so I am going through some stuff and come across an AW Ultra G chassis under a Shelby Daytona coupe. A little playing around and I have it zipping around my home track. Soon I notice despite the magnet the chassis has some coast when I get off the throttle. It runs mostly like a regular TJet. So my mind wanders (again). What about some of those (insert adjective here) JL chassis that don't have any coast at all...? Why not? So I start trying to re-learn some things about JL chassis that I have long forgotton...
1) The knurls on the rear axle actually rub on the chassis. Especially if the axle is bent.
2)There is so much slop at the crown gear that a shim is needed to prevent binding at the rear axle.
3)Wobbly armature pinion gear, sloppy fit idler gear and wobbly driven gear
on the gear plate.
4)Oversize hole for the armature shaft, gear plate and chassis.
5)Raised ridges on the underside of the gear plate. Because of the oversize 
armature holes in the chassis and gear plate I think that the armature was actually wobbling and contacting the ridges intermittently.
So, after my little experiment I have a JL chassis that does have some coast, runs a little smoother and may be faster. 
Sorry, I didn't do a before and after lap test and record the results...
But the chassis sure runs nicer... 
Now, back to the second purpose of this post.
I am looking for a source for relatively inexpensive pick up shoes and axles.
(I am REALLY bad at limiting the travel on pick up shoes. And I tried a bigger hammer, no good...)
So I can whup on several more clunky, sorry running JL and AW chassis and get them to run smooth and fast like they should...
Sorry for the long read...
But thank you for any leads...

Scott


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## noddaz (Aug 6, 1999)

Hey, just thought of two more things to improve the smoothability of the JL chassis.
1)Have to have the gear plate retainer dimpled to keep the idler gear from flopping up and down.
2)found that sharp edges of the segments on the arm may have been catching the edges of the brushes one in while. Not enough to stop it, but enough to catch it and slow it down. A quick rub with a small round tip punch took care of that...
Smoothness and drive ability are on the horizon... 
Zoom, zoom...

Scott

Scott


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## SuperFist (Aug 7, 2005)

Here's a few things that you can do to a Auto World Thunderjet to make it better.

Bent axles have to be trashed.
Axles that the center spline is rubbing in the chasses can be chucked up in a Dremel and run with upward pressure till the spline wears clearance in the chassis.
Cluster gear shaft wobble can be reduced by tightening up the pinion gear to the deck till it has minimum clearance.
Idler gear wobble can be reduced buy bending a slight inward radius on the top of the deck clip toward the idler gear post.
Brush springs need to be tweaked to get the desired coast or brake.

__________________


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## mking (Apr 25, 2000)

*cheap axles*

buy drill rod in several different sizes. its really cheap. 

http://www.wthutch.com/hssblanks/

as i recall the best sizes are 1/16 (0.625), wire size 53 (0.058), and wire size 52 (0.063). oil hardened drill rod (plenty stiff for a JLTO axles) is $1.29 for 3 feet in wire size 52. 1/16 air hardened drill rod is $1.44 for 3 feet. 

thats a lot of axles!!!!

heck, send my your address and i will send you a foot

:tongue:


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## win43 (Aug 28, 2006)

mking said:


> buy drill rod in several different sizes. its really cheap.
> 
> http://www.wthutch.com/hssblanks/
> 
> ...


Anyone ever try dowel pins as axles??? They seem to come in the sizes that would work. (see above link)


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## ParkRNDL (Mar 20, 2002)

I discovered the dimpled gear plate clamp trick last week. Works good.



noddaz said:


> And I tried a bigger hammer, no good...


LOL. been there.

--rick


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## Dyno (Jan 26, 2009)

An easy way to limit the shoe travel is throw some old Tjet shoes on it. But another way is use some shrink wrap tubing, slide it over the top of the shoes slot to where you want it. Shrink it, and trim off the excess. I cant remember the exact size. I will have to get back to you on that. Im terrible at folding the shoes properly to limit the travel so I use the shrink wrap.


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## noddaz (Aug 6, 1999)

*Ahhh, heat shrink tubing...*

I have never been able to get the heat shrink to stay on the shoes.
Sooo, that being said... Where are performance shoes available at a reasonable price?
Thanks,

Scott


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## noddaz (Aug 6, 1999)

*Thanks Mike!*

Axles have arrived. But I haven't had a chance to do anything with them yet.
Stupid snow... :lol:





mking said:


> buy drill rod in several different sizes. its really cheap.
> 
> http://www.wthutch.com/hssblanks/
> 
> ...


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