by Ralphthe3rd » Sat Jun 28, 2014 10:13 pm
Today, I have a bit of a RANT and a Warning ! And it's about Auto World Slot Cars, which IMHO, are mechanically, a pile of CRAP !
Let me explain, recently I received a customers brand NEW Chassis that was a 4 Gear from the latest Legends -Funny Car series. The customer wanted me to make this chassis as fast as possible while still using the stock armature and basic chassis, but change as many other parts, to make this chassis able to compete in a Drag Class for 4 gear Auto World cars, that his local slot car Club has. Okay, this should have been a simple Blue Print job, and tightening up the specs, and swapping out a few crappy pieces(like Axle, gears, wheels, com brushes, pick-up shoes etc) to make this chassis as smooth and friction free as possible, and with better electrical flow and less drag. First off, I tested out this stock chassis (after a break in period)on my 1/4 scale Dragstrip. And this chassis didn't run too bad at all, and was probably faster than all my stock(old) Aurora Specialty Chassis(which don't have Neo Traction magnets). Anyway, I proceeded to tear it down and start blueprinting, ie- tightening up axle and lower arm shaft holes, swapping axle and gears for aftermarket, Aftermarket wheels and tires, losing one of the Neo traction magnets, swapping to better comm brushes, polishing the commutator, lapping the gear train, etc. Okay, done that, and proceeded to break-in the new parts, and everything was looking good and sounding alot smoother, more like a new old stock Aurora Specialty does. Now time for some Drag strip testing, and wow, quite an improvement, and was running perfect and FAST.
Then, BAM ! Power dropped right off and that's not good, I checked the shoes and they were still clean, so I made another run, which was half the speed of the earlier runs. Something was definitely Wrong! So even before I opened her up, I could see the problem clearly thru the top and side vent ports in the top plate and chassis. What had happened was, at High Rpm, it THREW the Windings off of Two of the Three poles and broke a wire doing so on one of the poles. IE- The Arm is Now Toast ! So I have to tell my customer, the work went fine, but the motor Blew ! And who has to pay for a NEW Arm ? ...I DO !
So that's my Rant ! And my WARNING IS > When you Buy Auto World Slot Cars > CAVEAT EMPTOR !
I will replace this arm on my own dime, and not charge the customer for a new arm, and I PRAY that the NEW Auto World armature doesn't throw it's Winding too ! And btw- Don't think that it was my fault, because I created too much horsepower for the arm to handle, coz that's bullshit, as these Four Gears are Not as Fast as AW's stock X-Traction chassis or any stock Aurora AFX MagnaTraction I own. This is just Poor quality control, as the windings weren't wound tight enough to start, and this was bound to happen sooner or later. I think on the replacement arm, I'll paint on a touch of Super Glue over the windings, just to be SAFE !