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My Carrera track is set-up in the basement on a stable custom made table. I haven't changed the layout in over 10 years. Not too many racers around here, so it doesn't get a lot of use. Maybe an average of a few hours per month.

It's about 45' per lane, and has power feeds to three spots. My Pyramid power supply has plenty of current available and I always run at 12 volts.

At any rate, for the last few years I've been noticing that when cars are on the outside lane they seem a bit slower than on the inside lane. And the hotter the motor in the car, the more noticeable it is.

Last year I did partially disassemble the track (not easy, it's screwed-down in several places) and checked the connections. There was no corrosion or tarnish, and they didn't feel loose. So I cleaned them a bit (with alcohol) and crimped the ends to make sure there was a good tight connection when put back together. That helped, but not all that much.

Over time I also noticed that on the outside lane there were certain sections where the car didn't accelerate as quickly.

So I finally put a 1 amp load on the track, got out my volt meter and started measuring the voltage drop across track joints. Sure enough, there were significant differences.

A good joint would have 50mv - 75mv. Most had around 150mv. But on the outside lane in particular, there were lots of joints from 250mv to 350mv.

I pondered various options and finally came up with one that I think will work. There is enough room to drill and tap a hole in the plastic underneath the rails. And a 3/32 section of K&S square brass tubing fits inside the rails pretty well, and can be nicely tightened:



I'm going to try this on a small section and hopefully it will solve the problem. I'll post results (but it's hard to say when I'll get the time to work on it).

Have any of you tried anything like this? If yes, how has it held-up over time?

FYI, here's my layout:



Ron

PS, I'm looking for other casual racers in the north-west burbs of Chicago.

Easiest way to fix bad connections is with a circuitwriter pen. No need to dismantle track just put a little on each connection, works great.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/CONDUCTIVE-T ... 43d59a7ee8

Cheers

Sure it will help. Same can be done with jumper wires inside.

You have power taps, so I am sure this will help your issues.

On my scaly sport track I used 1 inch lengths of desoldering braid (just like brush material but much thinner) Push them down beside the rail across the connection to parallel the joint, It seems to work good and it's easy and cheap!

I`ve been through this, before this taping I had 18 power taps in approximately 86' of carrera track, with still some grey areas. Taping was the best solution for me, and I have the club guys over usually once a month. It gets a pretty good work out, and has stood up well for over 2-1/2 years now. I have yet to repair a section of tape, even when brand new the power was never so even all around all 4 lanes. BUT.... be fore warned depending on the tape it can be a bear to remove the glue residue. I found this out after loaning a few pieces to a club member, taping his track, then after he acquired the pieces to replace mine, trying to remove the tape to store. Goo gone, alcohol, would not touch the adhesive, it took gasoline on a rag and very careful wiping to remove.

Hi
a former HMR member ever talk about this, what he did, he spread a little bit those metal parts, when he fixed them back, he explained, to get good join it has to be tied and harder to take them apart, this problem were mostly on Carrera tracks...
Sylvain

Thanks for your replies!

Hmm. I kinda like the idea of taping. I'll have to think about it, but maybe that's the route I'll choose.

As long as you don't have to move the track, it's the way to go.

Hah! I've soldered some of the joints together on my 15 year old Scaly track. That'll work!