my car has no brakes!

[Bub]

Hi all, I've got a problem with a 1/32 Carrera Porsche Carrera GT (no pun intended). It has absolutely zero braking effect - I have to let off midway down a straight to slow for corners.

It's a neat car otherwise, probably several years out of production. The wiring looks ok, not sure how braking works exactly but would like to have some! Anyone with thoughts?

[waaytoomuchintothis]

Bub, Carrera doesn't have brakes. Well, that's not entirely true, but it might as well be. The gear mesh is so smooth, the position and strength of the field magnets of the motor, all kinds of stuff. It depends a lot on the rules for your group to know how to advise you. It can be done without a lot of trouble, but you need to tell us what is outlawed before we go any further.

[Bub]

I'm a home racer, so wife and friends are my biggest rivals - no rules except stay on the track :) All my other cars (carrera, slot-it, etc) stop on a dime. It's just this one giving me grief. Maybe I need to adjust my driving style...

[HomeRacingWorld]

If it is an older model, it might be lighter on the magna-traction too. Some of the older release Carrera have different gearing/less magnet which would effect your braking effect.

[boopiejones]

if you are running with magnets, it should have relatively good brakes. carrera cars traditionally have weak brakes, but you shouldn't need to let off midway down a straight. that being said, some carreras are worse than others in the braking department. i bought a carrera dekon monza that made my other carreras look like they stop on a dime. then after about 20 laps, the monza's motor crapped out. maybe your porsche's motor is on it's way out???

did you buy the car new or used? other than the usual wires, does it have anything installed between the motor and the guide?

if all else fails, a new motor should fix it right up. the H&R hawk is a nice choice and less than $10. it has similar RPM to a stock carrera motor, but it will stop the car a lot more quickly.

[RichD]

It is rare for a motor to die, but Carrera cars have chokes (those green things with stripes) to suppress RFI and those can burn out leaving you dead in the water. Just to be sure that the motor is really dead touch a 9 volt battery to the motor terminals. If the motor runs you can hot wire it to eliminate the chokes.

[waaytoomuchintothis]

Those are resistors, by the way, same as any you may find on just about everything electronic. Don't be put off by re-naming. Treat them the same way you would any electronic component of that type.

The point is still valid. Whereas they have no function in the US, they don't serve any purpose, either. They don't detract from performance, but like anything else that is in line and could go faulty, they are worthy of checking if the motor suddenly doesn't work.

[Bub]

The motor seems to be working fine so I added a small Prof M magnet this weekend which seemed to help some, at least I'm not flying off the track at the end of the straight :)
I'm open to the idea of changing out the motor for an H&R Hawk but sounds tricky- would I just omit the green resistors when wiring in the hawk motor?

[waaytoomuchintothis]

There probably is enough slack in the wires to just cut the leads off at the motor and then solder them directly to the new motor. Leave all the European radio suppression junk on the old motor, you don't need it. Have you soldered before?

[Bub]

That sounds good about my worries for the resistors - I'm not too good at soldering but with enough heat and solder can get by. Thx for the encouragement! I'll post how it turns out.

[waaytoomuchintothis]

The three elements of good soldering- the absolute most important three things about getting it done right, are flux, flux, and flux. Solder really will flow uphill if you flux it right. I learned by sweating copper water pipe, but you can learn much more easily, and without the possibility of water shooting all over when you fail.

Remember, flux. Flux yourself and the horse you rode in on, flux a doodle do, and Fluxaholics Anonymous. Lotsa flux. Oh yeah, and some sanding won't hurt, either.

[RichD]

The chokes are inductors, not resistors, although they do have a little resistance. Normally you would not want to put a couple of resistors in series with your motor.

[Nor Cal Mike]

One thing that I would add regarding soldering is that it is good to "tin" both pieces to be joined beforehand. Tin meaning to apply a small amount solder to each piece individually before joining them. Then usually all I have to do is touch the two together and add the heated iron again to fuse them. They will bond very quickly without additional solder and without too much heat going beyond the joint into the motor.

[Burglar]

Both Carrera and Monogram motors have very little braking effect (they might be the same motor?) and rely on magnet effect to pull them up. I am guessing that you are running this car on a non-magnet board track, or maybe a non-Carrera track with weaker magnet effect. I switched my motor to a Pioneer 18K Typhoon; the speed is around the same but it has brakes too and no-one seems to complain about me switching to an 18K

[jcis4me]

Aloha
Has anyone considered removing the switch on the bottom for reversing with out damaging the led lights? Wondering if when the trigger is released the resistance in the switch is causing the no brakes affect?
Aloha
Marty