Home Racing World

I recieved my 2 new racer sideways cars today. So I immediately opened them and started checking them out. One of them appeared to have a lot of up and down play in the front axle.I know when I was looking at them , before I bought them , it said the front axles were adjustable. It came with a tiny allen wrench for the adjustments. Seeing how the car is all but touching the track , because it sits so low , I wanted to adjust from the top side to take out the slack. In other words , push the axle down to slightly raise the front end. How should this axle actually be adjusted ? And there are no bushings on the fron axle. Is that the way these cars are ?

The front axle has no bushings. Only the screws rubbing against the axle. Won’t this eventually mess up the axle ?

Lubrication!

You set up the front axle so the wheels just touches the track, the car should rest harder on the guide then the wheels(as described by Harry in the link above). This way (normally) the car should handle better and you'll have minimum wear on the front axle. I usually put nail polish on the front wheels to make them "slippery", you don't wanna have any grip in front.

Your right there is no bushings. The axle rides on the points of the allen screws. The screws on the bottom set your ride height and the top screws are then tightened down to stop up/down play. Just ever so lightly touch the screws on top of the axle. Should spin very freely. There might be a little plastic stop sitting in the chassis hole where the lower set screws goes. They just pop out.

Dave

:angry-tappingfoot: One thing to keep in mind, if racing in a club, make sure tempering with the wheels is ok. Some clubs don't allow any chemicals on the wheels.

I take an allen with the ride height setscrew on the end, and work the end on some 1 or 2k grit, polish it up so its a bit crowned, hint of lube once its back in against the axle. I’ve had an ‘edgy’ setscrew scote an axle after time.....but no more.

Hi Rick,

The holes have slop in them so I take a 1/8" reamer and ream them out so I can put a piece of 1/8" brass tubing in. The brass tubing is then tightened down so it can't turn. The 3/32" axle rolls in the tube.

Or you can just tighten the axle down, put a collar on the outside of each wheel, take the set screws out and let them turn separately if the rules allow.

Thanks for the replies. I have had a cheapo slot car track off and on all my life. But never had the resources growing up like I do now , to get a really nice setup. These cars are just for home use , but , who knows , that could change in the near future. We do have a commercial track about 3 miles from my house. I am buying higher quality cars now , which I am not familiar with , so I’m just trying to learn how to tune them and take care of them. I will be tinkering with the two new ones this weekend. Thanks again , for the help.