by chrisguyw » Fri Sep 13, 2019 6:25 pm
Hi Mark, The Lotus appears to be in good shape, and other than it has had both front and rear wheels replaced and is missing the rear shocks/springs, it is all there and original.
Where to start.......
1/ Direction of travel,...... you could reverse the lead wires on either the motor or the guide block, or,... much easier,..... you can carefully pry out the rear axle/bushings/crown, and flip the whole assembly over so that the crown is on the other side of the pinion. Someone has previously flipped the axle assembly, as the Crown was originally on the other side of the pinion when it left the factory.
While you have the axle out, slide the bushings back and forth, and remove any bits of hair/lint, and give the crown gear a good scrub with an old (or your :) ) toothbrush and some dish liquid......dry,...a drop of oil on the bushings and re-install.
2/ Motor clean......give the whole motor a good shot of contact cleaner,....run it for a minute or so in its normal rotation, dry, and sparingly oil the front and rear motor bushings.
If you don't have any contact cleaner, you can run the whole motor in a glass of water for a minute or so,....again, run in its normal rotation, dry, and oil. (If you don't have an adjustable power supply a 6/9 volt flashlight battery will do). Check that the slots (3) on the commutator are not filled with junk, and if they are you can clean out the slots (carefully) with a round toothpick......tooth cleaning products are very useful in the slotcar world ;)
Noisy while running........The major cause of noise in this series of Scaley cars, is not the gears, but the fact that the motor is clipped into the chassis on either side of the motor, and, only at the front ......this allows the back of the motor to bounce up and down in the chassis, constantly altering gear mesh, and banging on the bottom chassis plate.
Securing the motor at the back will help a ton.......a drop of Shoe Goo, or better yet a drop of Lepages 100 flexible glue on the bottom half of the body between the body itself and the brass "ears" at the back of the motor will do the trick.
The rear wheels have been replaced with what looks like some MRRC Cobra wheels/tires, and they are neither the correct style wheel, and, are much too wide for the car. I do have a complete (correct) rear axle assembly for the C54 Lotus 16, and you are welcome to it should you wish. It does not have tires, but, RSSlotracing (google) have repro Ortmann urethane tires patterned after the original C54's. These will not only look better, but will have more grip than what is currently on the car. I will look for an original front axle/wheel assembly, but, I don't think I have one.,....I will also have a look for shocks/springs.
Hope this helps, and if I missed anything, please let me know.
Cheers
Chris Walker