Since the Slot-it pods are by far the most common, I will use them in the examples, but, the tips can be used on virtually all separate pods
First,.....the following pic. shows a situation that does show up on an awful lot of slot-it pods, regardless of the motor orientation...........the plastic bushing"fingers" are just proud of the outside of the bushing flange,.......so, your spacers/spur/axle stoppers/wheel hubs etc. run on the plastic bushing "fingers", and not on the face of the bushing. This does not promote a free running or a precision set up. (This affects all sidewinders and anglewinder pods, and if you use spacers between the bushings/wheels on your inlines, it affects you too.)
The fix should take 2/3 minutes, and costs nothing.................Priceless !! ;)
Remove the bushing, file/sand a few thou. off of the face of the bushing "fingers", and reinstall.........now, with the outside of the bushing flange just proud of the plastic bushing housing, your spacers/axle stoppers/spur gears/wheel hub will now touch and rotate on a precision surface......considerably reducing friction. The tiny amount of material removed will in no way affect the structural integrity of the upright/bushing holder........I have done this on countless Slot-it (and other) pods with zero issues.
Having the outside of the bushing just proud of the "fingers" also is beneficial in another way, as its acts as a glue fence, should you choose to glue the bushings in......(a very good idea), and I will discuss this process in a future article update.
If your bushings are worn, or you just want an improvement, get the newish Slot-it "sintered" bushings to replace the standard brass ones.
In the next pic. the "sintered" ones are on the left, the brass on the right...........sintering creates small fissures in the bronze/brass which hold oil (a good thing) and, if/when you glue in your bushings, the sintering provides some "tooth" which results in a much stronger bond. (If you don't inspect/clean/ oil your rear bushings frequently, or,..... you enter proxies which have many rounds, the sintered bushings are a godsend)
And finally, you should always use spacers (two of them) between bushing surfaces and gears/wheels/axle stoppers etc. particularly on Sidewinder/Anglewinder set-ups.
On inlines, many (likely most) folks use the gear boss to center the axle, and while this is certainly acceptable, controlling the lateral axle movement via spacers, is considerably more precise.( Note to self....I will add inline gear/axle setup as a future topic) If you use 2 spacers they will act as thrust washers and will reduce friction vs. a direct surface to contact surface.
While on the spacer topic, while I see a variety of spacers used (plastic,brass, homemade, etc. etc.), and while all are better than none, if you are intent on low friction/precision, a quality machined (both sides) spacer can't be beaten. They come in widths from 5thou. and up, and the better ones (Slick 7, Koford etc.) are generally available from good commercial shops.
These are Slick 7 .005 spacers.....machined both sides, and are the same od. as the Slot-it Bushing face......2 per side will reduce friction.
Next time,.........narrowing a Slot-it pod (for narrow cars) and gluing in "self aligning or self unaligning" bushings.
Cheers
Chris Walker
