Drive line noise in front motored cars

[Mitch58]

I have several front motored cars ( MRRC, Scalextric, and Auto Art) that all make the same rattily drive line noise especially when you hit the throttle. I've raced other front motored cars in proxies that were a lot quieter. So you guys who race front motored classes, how do you fix this? I've already glued in the carrier bearing because they tended to pop out on routed tracks with more grip than my plastic track. My Ninco and Revell Jags didn't seem to have this problem.

[Czar]

How tight is the fit between the driveshaft and the bushing? You might try to Super Glue trick to tighten the i.d of the bushing.

[Nor Cal Mike]

Get rid of the spring coupler. Use a piece of surgical tubing in its place. The noise is in the spring. Beyond what you hear, it causes harmonics that adversely effects performance. Those harmonics are what you are hearing.

P.S. Really small vacumn hose works too.

[CrockettNZ]

yep as Nor Cal Mike said
the spring is the problem
it gets a slight vibration in it which creates the harmonics
we have a lollie pop called chuba chub here in NZ
the stick is hollow plastic which some club guy's have used that works well

[munter]

ballpoint pen inner tube is another possibility

[Austin]

[goosenapper]

Another option as a replacement is some rubber tubing, which allows for flexibility of the drivetrain that the plastic coupling will not. This is really only something worth worrying about when mounting the motor or shaft bushing in the car, but I like having the wiggle-room when reinstalling the motor.

Here is a shot of a Monogram Porsche 550 that Harry had tuned with the tubing, along with the stock spring on the left:


I got my supply of the stuff from him, so can't speak to its specifics or where to find it. I just refer to it as Harry's Magic Tubing because it quiets down and improves the response of every car I've put it in.

[Mitch58]

Thanks guys, I had already replaced the spring with weed eater fuel line from Home Depot a few months ago. Through another suggestion I stiffened the chassis with piano which made a big difference in the MRRC Cobra, but it made a huge difference in the Auto Art C-Type.

[clivearmstrong74]

g
Guys, you are wizzards!!! Thanx for the question and all the answers, because I have/had the same problem...now it's fixed!!

Cheers
Clive