# Running a new D-Jet: Initial impressions



## ParkRNDL (Mar 20, 2002)

Picked up a few new D-Jets at the Lehigh Valley show today. Very impressed with the product. I haven't done much tinkering with them yet, but I did set one up with a Dash Yenko Chevelle body and ran a bunch of laps with it.

It is notable that every part of the car in the picture and video below is from Dash Motorsports with the exception of the guide pin.










(sorry it's kinda grainy, i was experimenting with my work iPad. i'll try to get some better pictures later.)

Here's a quick video:






Apologies again for the loud clicking of the controller. I was holding the iPad right next to it, doing the best I could to drive and film at the same time. 

Observations:

Some have noted that they feel the car has excessive gear noise. I disagree. I ran the first lap or two literally out of the bag without even lubricating it, and it was a little noisy. Then after lubing the usual points and running maybe 5 laps on my 16-foot layout, it quieted down and smoothed out and now the sound seems indistinguishable from an original Aurora chassis. It's not as quiet as my best-broken-in Auroras, but it's also not as loud as some of my originals. I don't feel the noise is out of line at all. Those who have noted the gear train seems rough may be feeling the effects of the stronger-than-Aurora magnets pulling on the armature poles. This is pretty evident when you release the trigger--the D-Jet brakes much faster than the original Thunderjet.

Out of the bag, the pickup shoes do tend to contact only at the front. I don't feel this is a manufacturing issue; rather, it's the nature of this chassis design... the originals often needed adjustment from the factory too. I was able to tweak the shoes in the middle for a better contact patch without even removing them from the chassis.

I've run maybe 30 or 40 laps so far, and I haven't had the problems others have reported with tires falling off. I actually really like the tires. For those who want the full Tjet experience of running on rubber skinnies instead of aftermarket silicones, they work great. They slide in the corners and spin on takeoff, but the slide is still quite controllable (unlike with the dried-out original Tjet tires) and the wheelspin doesn't continue all the way down the track... they do hook up after a second. I even tried a pair on an original Aurora chassis. This is what I imagine it was like running on the original Aurora Tjet tires before they all got to be 40-50 years old.

I thought I also saw a comment from someone about the front axle splines binding in the chassis. Not sure, but I don't think this is the case. I can feel a roughness in the front axle sometimes when I turn the wheel with my finger, but it doesn't seem to happen when the car is sitting on the track with weight on the front wheels, and I can't feel any effects from it when running the car. I can see where the chassis was filed under the front axle, and I'm pretty sure this was one of the things Dan said he had to do to every chassis before sending them out into the wild.

I am VERY pleased and excited with these. The one I set up is as smooth and controllable as a good Aurora Thunderjet, with better acceleration and braking due to the stronger magnets. I look forward to getting more.

--rick


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## Ralphthe3rd (Feb 24, 2011)

Ahem...you picked up "T-Dash" Chassis... Not D-Jets...


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## ParkRNDL (Mar 20, 2002)

Oops. You'd think I would get that right. It's molded right on the chassis, duh. I stand corrected. 

--rick


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## Ralphthe3rd (Feb 24, 2011)

BTW, I too like the skinny tires that come on the T-Dash chassis, but not for it's use on the Dash chassis. IE- I wish I could buy about 50 pr. for use on my original Aurora T-Jet Chassis... and I'm now using my Dash Tires on a rears of a couple of stock Aurora T-J chassis, and love how they handle. :thumbsup:


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## Bubba 123 (Sep 10, 2010)

Ralphthe3rd said:


> BTW, I too like the skinny tires that come on the T-Dash chassis, but not for it's use on the Dash chassis. IE- I wish I could buy about 50 pr. for use on my original Aurora T-Jet Chassis... and I'm now using my Dash Tires on a rears of a couple of stock Aurora T-J chassis, and love how they handle. :thumbsup:


I'm sure parts will follow..
after Dan gets the chassis assembled...

Bubba 123 :wave::wave:


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## ParkRNDL (Mar 20, 2002)

I actually thought about doing something like that... taking the tires off the fronts of the Dash chassis to use on Aurora Tjet rears, then putting old Tjet tires on the fronts of the Dash chassis.

--rick


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## ParkRNDL (Mar 20, 2002)

All-Dash car show, bodies and chassis! I bought the Yenko at the show today, the rest I had already. All good runners. The Chevelle and 442 are strongest, the GTO and Mopar could use either a little tinkering or more break-in time.














































I discovered that on the T-Dash's black wheels, if you hit the raised axle boss in the middle of the wheel with a silver Sharpie, you get this cool dog dish hubcap effect. Pretty sure you could have ordered any of the 1:1 musclecars like that back in the day, but it seems to look especially at home on the Mopar...

--rick


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## 1976Cordoba (Sep 20, 2000)

ParkRNDL said:


> I discovered that on the T-Dash's black wheels, if you hit the raised axle boss in the middle of the wheel with a silver Sharpie, you get this cool dog dish hubcap effect. Pretty sure you could have ordered any of the 1:1 musclecars like that back in the day, but it seems to look especially at home on the Mopar...
> 
> --rick



I was just thinking this in my head when I got to the bottom & read this :tongue:

Really dig the black rims - sweet touch :thumbsup:


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## slotcarman12078 (Oct 3, 2008)

At first I though, "Man, those axles are HUGE!!!!". :lol: Nice touch Rick!!!


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## Hilltop Raceway (Feb 12, 2006)

Looks pretty cool...:thumbsup::thumbsup:
what about hitting the rim edge with some silver, just lay your marker on the edge and rotate. Would work real good if you can chuck the rim in a drill, spin, and touch the rim with a pen, old Pinewood Derby trick to paint the spokes... RM


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## Bubba 123 (Sep 10, 2010)

slotcarman12078 said:


> At first I though, "Man, those axles are HUGE!!!!". :lol: Nice touch Rick!!!


try some of those aftermarket white walls 2.....

OH, heard that these are all junk, so i'll give U guys $3 ea. to take 'em off u'r hands 4 "Salvage"..... (NOT Working...Huh???...:freak

can't wait 2 get my hands on some ;-)
Bubba 123 :wave:


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## Joe65SkylarkGS (Feb 15, 2010)

For you guys looking for superiors skinny tires, Bob Beers sells a nice bag of like 50 or 100 tires. Reasonable price too. Plus they are new and work great. If you don't have any slot shows near you, pm Mr.Aurora and he will mail em I'm sure. I knkw Tom had to use a bag or two due to the fact that Dan didn't get his in time to ship to Tom. 

Totally digging the wheel idea Rick with a dab of silver paint pen. And Randy with the grear idea of how to do it and make em look professional. 

I'll be dressing up a few chassis like that myself. Gotta love HT.


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## slotcarman12078 (Oct 3, 2008)

Check out Bob's Ebay listings... I know he has a bunch of wheels and tires listed. If the skinny tires aren't, he needs to get them listed!!


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## lenny (Feb 29, 2000)

I'm really glad I decided not to chrome the rims. they look hot the way they are, basic black...


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## Bubba 123 (Sep 10, 2010)

lenny said:


> I'm really glad I decided not to chrome the rims. they look hot the way they are, basic black...


AND an "Original" Idea 2 :thumbsup:

Bubba 123 :wave:


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## ParkRNDL (Mar 20, 2002)

ok, I figured out a simple adjustment on these that brought them from good, solid runners to SCREAMERS. i guess maybe this was a common-knowledge Tjet trick since way back when, but i just figured it out and i will be applying it to any Aurora Tjets that look like they need it. it made a big difference on all 4 of the Dash chassis I just got.










when i got the chassis, the pickup shoes looked kinda flat, like an AFX ski shoe, and they wore only at the very front (see red arrow in pic 1). so i adjusted them at the middle *bend*, and it appeared that they were laying flat on the rail and making contact along the whole contact *step*. after running them a while, though, it became apparent that they were only making contact at the front and rear ends of the *step* (see arrows in pic 2). so tonight i tried bending *the step* juuuuust a little so it was just very slightly bowed. now the wear pattern is along the whole middle of the *step* (circle in pic 3) and these things are ROCKETS. even smoother and more consistent than before.

i want more...

--rick


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## lenny (Feb 29, 2000)

just curious... maybe I should ship these with the Dash ski shoes instead.


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## Bill Hall (Jan 6, 2007)

*Hold course and speed!*

Nawwwww Dan. I wouldnt sweat it. 

Massaging a little belly into contact patches is old school shoe tuning intel that got lost in the translation over the years. The original designers had stuff in play that wasnt particularly obvious, how ever the subtlties were there for a reason. Just because they didnt tell us, doesnt mean it didnt matter.

A glaring example is fubarred shoe hook geometry on ALL the JLTO/AW shoes. All severely over-sprung because they failed to duplicate the original correctly. They never figured it out and stuck neo magnet on them instead. Many old guys are still laughing our heads off. 

Same goes for the rolled leading edge on original t-jet shoes. It's there to help step the transitions on sectional track and prevent cleaving/chiseling the leading edge of the shoe against the rail joints. The continuous rail crowd doesnt care because it's not on their radar. They dont need the assist because there are no joints.

This is why cars with modern Fray style, or BSRT racing shoes sound like rake being drug across the side walk when you drive them on sectional track. Same applies for most modern ski or longstep shoes on sectional track. Ya gotta roll some toe into the leading edge and rub a little belly into the contact patch to get them to skim along like a hydro instead of plowing like grandmas garden hoe. I've always said the car should say "shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" as it flies by, not "skkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk". 

Additionally, with a bend stamped on either end of a thin strip of metal there's almost always going to be some correction required in the middle. I'm not surprised at all. In most all cases the center of thin lightweight shoes has to go down towards the rail fractionally. I just grab them with my tweezers and pull the contact patch through a couple of times. Kinda like a poor mans english wheel technique. Just enough to subtly wow them down imperceptibly. It takes only seconds to correct.

There is no way to please all the people all the time. It really is apples and oranges depending on the type of track/rail. A certain amount of shoe voodoo is required to get the most out of any slot car no matter what the design.

The Dash chassis comes with a light weight racing style shoe, people with lumpy sectional track, and savage rail joints need tune accordingly. It's unreasonable to expect you to provide a magic wand in every box...yeah?

Rick's observation is spot on, that little belly can turn a great car into a missile.


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## Boosted-Z71 (Nov 26, 2007)

Lenny, dont change a thing on the cars, like was said, just a couple of small tweaks and they become rockets!, Oh I like the black wheels as well, not that it matters, but thats my vote. I posted the Bug in another thread, its awesome and gets faster every time out.

Again Great Job

Boosted


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## Joe65SkylarkGS (Feb 15, 2010)

Absolutely what Bill said. 

I'm very very happy with the chassis the way it is. Out of the box they blow away any Aurora chassis. 

Agreed on the smooth rails too. Clickity click track always require major shoe tuning. On any chassis.


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## Bubba 123 (Sep 10, 2010)

Joe65SkylarkGS said:


> Absolutely what Bill said.
> 
> I'm very very happy with the chassis the way it is. Out of the box they blow away any Aurora chassis.
> 
> Agreed on the smooth rails too. Clickity click track always require major shoe tuning. On any chassis.


I've got an AFX chassied that eats it's shoes quickly no matter w/ I do....
then again, it's a "Magy" that goes about Mach2 in scale... (speed/friction my quess)...

NO, Can NOT Be BETTER Than Aurora T-jets !!!
4 it is written, "4 Then, It shall come the end of...TIMES..):drunk: ROFLMAO!!

Knowing Dash Quality Control.... 
this "Better-Than", is a "No-Brainer":thumbsup:

Bubba 123 :wave:


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## Grandcheapskate (Jan 5, 2006)

lenny said:


> just curious... maybe I should ship these with the Dash ski shoes instead.


Just as a general rule, personally I prefer the long step shoe. I have learned how to bend the ski shoes to run pretty good, but the long step is still my choice.

There is no way you are going to be "spot on" in either the exact bend of the pickup shoes or in the correct tension on the brush springs. All you can do is provide a top quality shoe that is the correct shape at the bends and chassis electricals which are sturdy, accurate, have the correct "V" bend and are close to the right tension.

You also need to be sure you get a good gear mesh and everything is pressed on straight as these would be far more difficult and involved problems for us to overcome.

The remaining fine tuning must be left up to the user. It is the nature of the pancake chassis. No one who has worked with pancake chassis expects them to be perfect right out of the box. That is both their shortcoming (for the newbie) and their appeal (to the veterans).

If you make the chassis out of quality parts and have good assembly, the chassis (and future parts sales) will be a success.

Joe


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## ParkRNDL (Mar 20, 2002)

Like everyone else has said, I wouldn't change a thing. The product as delivered is great, and is as close to an exact replica of the original Aurora as anyone could hope to come. It's only logical that an exact replica of the original will share the original's tuning peculiarities. Bill and a couple others have said that the original Aurora shoes required the same kind of finessing. I think the fact that the same exact tricks and tweaks apply is a testament to just how close these are to the originals.

I find it funny that as a middle-aged guy in 2014, I'm learning the same mechanical and electrical engineering principles that 10-year-olds figured out for themselves in the early 1960s... 

--rick

Edit: after reading others' comments, I went back and corrected my terminology above... I was calling the step a "flat".


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## ParkRNDL (Mar 20, 2002)

just a few gratuitous shots for you fans of dog dish caps on Mopars...





































--rick


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## Bubba 123 (Sep 10, 2010)

ParkRNDL said:


> just a few gratuitous shots for you fans of dog dish caps on Mopars...
> 
> 
> 
> ...


thought they w/ called "Baby-Moons" (???) :freak::thumbsup:

Bubba 123 :wave:


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## slotcarman12078 (Oct 3, 2008)

Baby moons are rounded like VW caps, without the VW. US automakers had a little flair to their caps, aka doggie dishes.


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## rholmesr (Oct 8, 2010)

Some thoughts on the five t-dash cars that I just got.

Of the 5 cars, one was a screamer and the others all seemed rather so-so just by the 'ear dyno'.

The screamer I just oiled up and spaced out the front wheels a bit with some spacers (more on that below) and it ran really nice on the track. Ran even better after I straightened the shoes so they were riding flat to the track rather than toe heavy. I had a big smile as I was driving it - it runs much like a good ol' box stock t-jet (that's good!). :hat:

I thought the amount of gear noise was pretty normal for a stock t-jet car. Nothing alarming at all about that. As with t-jets it'll probably get a bit better over time as it wears in if kept properly lubed.

I worked on another car and got it running pretty good. Not quite as nice as the screamer car but it is okay for sure.

The other cars I took apart to see what makes 'em tick. I have not spent a lot of time looking at these as I am prepping to head out to the Fray tomorrow. I do plan on taking my two runners along with me to show them off though.

At least one noteworthy caveat: Check closely the clearance between the end of rear motor brush arm and the brush hole. 2 of my chassis had interference / binding at corners of the brush arm and the hole in the chassis and that prevented the brush from riding against the arm properly. Required a minor tweak to fix it. I found this on my 2nd runner and then noticed same binding on one other one and the other 3 cars are all close to binding at this spot. Perhaps needs a tooling tweak to put a crisper bend at the brush arm tips?

I put spacers between the front wheels and chassis so that the pickup shoes would not strike or stick against the wheel flange faces.

I spun all the arms up and all 5 are very smooth. In contrast to stock t-jets where a majority are badly out of balance. The arms all look really nice too.

Overall I'm pleased with the product. 

Ron


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## Bill Hall (Jan 6, 2007)

"I spun all the arms up and all 5 are very smooth. In contrast to stock t-jets where a majority are badly out of balance. The arms all look really nice too." (Ron)

This is very cool!


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## LDThomas (Nov 30, 1999)

Saw my first one Saturday night. Great work, Dan.


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## lenny (Feb 29, 2000)

Bill Hall said:


> "I spun all the arms up and all 5 are very smooth. In contrast to stock t-jets where a majority are badly out of balance. The arms all look really nice too." (Ron)


an enormous amount of work went into getting the factory to assemble these correctly and consistently. I dont know how many rounds of samples we did. you won't find any skewed shafts or concave comm plates. 

quality and consistency. That's what we hoped to accomplish. That's why we did a 15 ohm tri lam arm before coming out with a 'fray arm'. To make sure we had a solid product, first.


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## alpink (Aug 22, 2010)

mission acccomplished


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## slotking (May 27, 2008)

never mind


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## lenny (Feb 29, 2000)

slotking said:


> I am not done with my testing that I have added to my video library yet, please note, I am not complaining! I like the cars, but the OD of the tri-lam arms may be to big to fit into the t-jet chassis as is.
> 
> just an FYI


what in the world are you talking about?


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## Joe65SkylarkGS (Feb 15, 2010)

lenny said:


> what in the world are you talking about?


My thought exactly :freak:


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## slotking (May 27, 2008)

sorry
I was wrong

I was testing how well the parts between the t-jet and dash interchange.
I tried to get the dash gear plate and arm on a t-jet. I was having a hard time to seat the arm. I thought was the diameter, but nope it was not.

I was able to put a t-jet plate on the dash chassis and it worked fine.
I was able to put a t-jet arm on the dash gear plate and fit perfect in the t-jet.
Took some a bit of time, but I got the dash gear plate & arm to work in the t-jet chassis.

so it all looks excellent


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## LDThomas (Nov 30, 1999)

"Lenny" - Dan,

I race with a group in KC, MO. Every summer we have a special Bag-of-Parts race where each racers gets a plastic bag full of parts and has 30 minutes to put them all together into a running race car. Then we line them up and race for a few hours. I have spoken with the racers and we would like to use your new chassis this year. I would like to discuss details with you on this. Please contact me off list at [email protected].

Thanks.

Larry Thomas
Beatrice, NE


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## lenny (Feb 29, 2000)

slotking said:


> sorry
> I was wrong
> 
> I was testing how well the parts between the t-jet and dash interchange.
> ...


I just dropped a T-Dash gear plate w/armature into an original aurora t-jet and it fits perfectly and runs great


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## slotking (May 27, 2008)

I will try some other chassis
but yes, the parts do all interchange


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