# Tyco , U turn chassis ?? help



## back.to.ho (Jan 3, 2012)

Help - what is a tyco u-turn chassis ? Does it need special controller or track to use. I have an oppurtunity to get one, but would like to know 1st if it will run on my tomy track ? 

Happy New Year to All the great people on HT !!!!!:wave:


----------



## Hittman101 (Oct 21, 2009)

Yes it will run on a Tomy track without any problems..


----------



## rdm95 (May 8, 2008)

Uturn chassis' are pretty cool..they do just as the name states. Theres a technique to it, which ive never been very skilled at, but my son is! My guess is that its best to do it in the curves and yr supposed to slow down & then punch it to get it to do the uturn and go in the opposite direction. I believe it was for race sets that had a bad guy & the police who were chasing them. Some had lights & sirens to enhance the "Cops & Robbers" experience. lol


----------



## Shadowracer (Sep 11, 2004)

They are kind of fun. 

I ended up with one as a part of a small lot I won off of ebay and I couldn't figure out what it was at first. There's just a little doodad between the pick ups that allows the car to run in either direction, and the front tires (at least on mine) are dummy pieces of plastic molded right to the chassis.


----------



## back.to.ho (Jan 3, 2012)

Thanks , guys .hey sound kinda interesting. guess I'll get it !


----------



## ParkRNDL (Mar 20, 2002)

Yep, my kids love running the few that I have. Fun stuff.

--rick


----------



## Grandcheapskate (Jan 5, 2006)

One thing to know. Some U-Turn bodies are glued onto the chassis at the factory. Why they did that, I don't know. You can break them free, but you have to be careful.

Joe


----------



## slotcardan (Jun 9, 2012)

The U turn, uses a full bridge rectifier chip between the contact shoes and the motor. the chip converts all input power into Positive voltage for the motor, this allows the car to travel forward on the track surface regardless of direction around the track. if you take a normal car and turn it around it will attempt to run in reverse.

The u turn uses a weighted front end and fake front tires, it skids around on the the contact shoes and is designed to be unstable in the curves. The car requires inside and out outside Aprons in the curve sections, this was to allow direction changes but also because the car will drift in curves and swing its butt out in anticipation of swinging around for a direction change. It takes a little practice to get the hang of it. the U turn sets included the special flat apron inside and out attachments which went onto a specially modified curve track section with Keys to hold the aprons on to the curve track. The set also came with a directional Jump section of track. in one direction the car would bypass the jump and in the other the car would take the jump, it was a double jump 1 for the inside 1 for the outside lane. the cars would not change lanes(some people think they were lane changers they are not)

Tyco Glued the bodies on the cars that came with Sound and lights, The majority were Mustang body variants but there was a Viper variant as with lights and sound.

The early 1980s version of the set came with a MP military police car the early set didn't have any lights, the later set came with a working light(did not flash on the MP car) and the body was not glued on, the chase car was the A team Van.

the later 80s set was usually a mustang Police, or Mustang Fire chief with working lights and siren There was a few different chased cars with these sets. there was a 1940s coupe with flames, a Pontiac Fiero I believe the 40s coupe came with the fire department mustang, and the Fiero came with the highway patrol mustang.

in the early 90s there was a Viper TV show Tie in and the police car was the Viper and the chased car was the dodge Stealth Black Villain car. then there was an optional Red street Looking Viper as a chased car.

The cars with working lights and siren had a Heavy Circuit Board mounted in the body with 2 small power wires down to the full bridge rectifier circuit board, Tyco glued these bodies on for Safety, preventing a child from opening the car and damaging the power wires inside.

the circuit boards make excellent custom light and sound cars.

I've mounted them in various AFX cars for my speedsteer system
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzXYrP0Jzuo


----------



## Ralphthe3rd (Feb 24, 2011)

One thing to look out for on a USED U-Turn car purchase, is that alot of the time, one or both rear wheels are not tight on the axles and/or have a cracked hub....Not really a problem if you add a drop of CA (Super Glue).
Another side note is the rear axle w/crown gear, the spacing on the crown gear is unique, and also doesn't use a gear saver(but you could install one). As it comes, the Crown gear is specific and indexes off a little nub on the inside of the chassis. If you need to replace that gear, you can carefully shave off a crown from a 440 or HP7 chassis, but the mesh needs to be perfect- or binding(and overheating) will occur. Also, too lose a fit with strip the teeth. And if you ever need to replace the "can" motor, an HP7 motor will fit, although you need to shorten the shaft precisely, and you'll also note that the HP7 motor is more powerful than the normal U-Turn "can" motor.
BTW- I own Two Dozen U-Turn chassis cars, that I race in a Special class on my oval(which uses aprons for drifting). And you can adjust the drifting ability, by using different compounds of Silicone tires, as using the standard rubber tires are like driving on ICE !


----------



## [email protected] (Jan 31, 2010)

The rectifier on the front. Is there a place to get a replacement? All the chassis I have, the numbers do not match anything on the web.

I have about 8 chassis that the rectifier is fried. These chassis do not run unless you bypass the rectifier.


----------



## slotcardan (Jun 9, 2012)

sure its just a standard 4 pin component

http://www.newark.com/jsp/search/productdetail.jsp?SKU=69R5243

you can beef them up to 1.5Amps and have them fit the same board but 1 amp is more then enough.

you can have tons of fun with these. I retrofit Tyco Pro Lighted cars. So i can turn the lights on and off remotely from the controller.

the Rectifier allows you to run AC power the Bridge, converts the power to DC positive which you feed the motor. then you have a bypass with an LED so when you select positive power from the controller the lights are off. when you select negative power the lights turn on. The motor doesn't see any change because of the rectifier.

so you can turn the Lights on and off on a HO scalecar just like the larger scale carrera cars.


----------



## cbwho (Dec 14, 2021)

What voltage do these cars take? I got a NOS cop car. The lights illuminate with 8v, The siren turns on with 12v, and it takes high throttle at 22v to get going. I oiled the motor but didn't help much to have it budge earlier


----------

