THE UPGRADE THAT FAILED
(SORT OF)
by
Daniel J. Dyke
I am doing an ongoing set of articles on the SCX Visteon CART Lola in which the objective is to make the car faster and detail how it was done. Sometimes we try things that do not work or at least as well as expected. The project at hand is to make this car an absolute terror in an open wheel race. I was at a local purveyor of fine slots and was going through their HO and 1/32 parts inventory when I found the Slot.it v-12 upgrade kit for the SCX car for $11.99. Basically this kit is a standard 29000 rpm Slot.it motor with two plastic adapters that make it fit in the SCX engine bay.
My initial reaction was to make those muttering sounds of a twisted mind at work. Then the decision was made to buy it and put it in the SCX Lola Champ Car. A wise man once said that a fool and his money are soon parted. I had just got my paycheck and immediately spent my two weeks slot car allowance in less than an hour. Amid the treasure trove was the motor. Right up front I am going to tell you I ran into problem after problem with this upgrade, but have no regrets.
Parts List
When you open the bag of parts you get two little adapter plates and a Slot.it V-12 (29000 rpm). The motor comes with two long leads (the two connector wires) with eyelets, and a pinion gear. The leads are so long that there is enough material for two small cars. The adapter set is not Slot.it specific and can be used to adapt other Mabuchi style motors to an SCX chassis, if the have a long enough armature shaft.
Gasp, No Instructions
Why didn't they put in installation instructions? I have to say that
it was perfectly obvious how the adapters work; at least it was to me.
Grandpap (Clunks) was my first engineering instructor in life and could
make anything out of anything. He was an inveterate pack rat because
he believed everything could be used for something else if you thought
long enough. Clunks had a rule to look at each
thing to see its nature before you started trying to work on it.
In other words look at the adapter carefully and then look at the engine
bay with the same squinted eye. See it is obvious how the parts go
on and the unit goes in. Clunks was a Zen master and probably couldn't
spell or pronounce it.
The Problem of the Bracket
The second reason for no instructions is not as obvious as the first, but
becomes so as soon as you try to install the unit. This brings us
to the next problem. Simply stated, Slot.it had to make a generic
adapter for a variety of engine bays. You will have to adapt the
adapter for certain types of cars. For the SCX Lola the rear adapter
needed to have some filing done at three places to fit. Go back to
the Clunk's rule. Look at the thing carefully
and slowly remove the excess material with a flat file until the adapter
fits the way it was designed to fit. I am not being critical of the
Slot.it adapter at this point, because I can see the nature of the situation
they were confronted with. They did an admirable job of making an
adapter that can be adapted.
The engine fits perfectly once the rear adapter is modified and no modification needs to be done to the front adapter.
Besides being very long there is a problem with the leads. SCX cars do not use wires to hook the motor to the guide blade, but use a system of flat metal strips on the chassis and metal whiskers from the motor. In this case a picture is worth a thousand words.
The problem is that the SCX guide does not take wires with eyelets. The solution is to cut the leads off and solder them to the flat metal strips on the chassis. A side benefit to this is you have a regular length set of those fine Slot.it lead wires to put on another car.
Soldering for Idiots
This is the most intimidating part for many people. If you have never soldered take BWA's course on soldering. Go to his site at http://www.bwaslotcars.com/ and click on ARTICLES and choose the article called "Soldering 1-2-3."
Now to solder the short wires to the metal strips.
1) Clean the strips with a fine sandpaper.
2) Put flux on the strips and the wires.
3) Melt some solder on the lead wire until it flows into the strands
4) Melt some on the metal strip until it flows on the surface
5) Hold the wire to the soldered portion of the strip.
6) Heat the solder on both parts until it flows together.
7) Remove the iron and let the solder cool.
CAVEAT = BEWARE, BEWARE, BEWARE: Soldering irons melt plastic, at least in my hands. Always practice on scrap metal first. Glue a piece of metal to thin plastic and solder a wire to it. Don't use aluminum or steel, but copper or brass. Have a tub of water ready to dip the chassis in if the plastic gets too hot.
The Rub
The Slot.it pinion gear meshes well with the SCX crown gear and the motor produces gobs of RPMs. The rub was that the motor was a hair taller than the original and the positioning of the wires makes it even taller and so it has less space to clear the bodywork. This restricts the side to side movement of the motor pod that SCX now uses. I am sure with a little work this problem can be alleviated.
The Amperage
The Slot.it motor was a little sluggish on my short course using the low amperage power supply, but improved with the 5 amp Radio Shack power supply. Remember that voltage without amps is useless. The Slot.it motor is obviously intended for long courses.
Desoldering and Reinstallation
I saw no point in an engine change for my course and so I desoldered the motor and stuck the original back in. In desoldering I left the lead wires attached to the chassis and desoldered at the motor. Why? Because I don't like the whisker setup of the SCX cars. I didn't remove the whiskers, but soldered the wires to them as power taps. Here it what is cool, the SCX motor is faster and smoother as it has a more positive hookup.
The Bright Side
It was a good experiment, but of no immediate value to me. I have to be positive, because not every upgrade is for me today. Here are the pluses:
1) Maybe someday I will have a big track that demands such a motor. If I go to the local raceway that just opened, I will put the V-12 or some other killer motor back in the car using the adapters.If a Slot.it V-12 is for you and you have some soldering skills then buy it, but if not then don't. Mauricio and his company (Slot.it) are to be commended for bringing a needed niche product to market that is workable in a difficult environment. May it sell well to those who need it.
2) I have two nice lead wires to use on other cars.
3) My SCX Lola runs better with the power tap wires installed.
4) If an SCX motor dies, I have a bracket to put in a PMTR/GTTHS as a replacement.
5) I now have an extra Slot.it V12 in my parts bin.
And so they lived happily ever after.
The End.
10-19-04: I tried this in an SCX Dome Judd. Failure
again. The Mabuchi style (SlotIt) motor is just too tall. I
modified the body work to the extreme limit and it still did not allow
the moving motor pod to work. In fact it held the motor slightly
off the neutral position.
(dan.dyke@goodnews.net)