[a Bill]

The Mabuchi motors used in these toys cars leaves quite a bit to be desired. However, since they are intended for toys I won't gripe too much

My Scalextrics white GT40 motor didn't keep its power for long so I tore it down and saw the brushes in the end bell were toast. I swapped in another variety of Mabuchi end bell and it failed lickety split. OK, I might have swapped in more powerful magnets and a bit hotter arm as well so I don't mind its failing so quickly since it really didn't do so well in stock form.

My question is, what are you doing about brushes in these little motors?

I can't be the only one that is pushing these little cars harder than the factory intended. Yes, I could swap in a different motor but I don't like to admit defeat that quickly. I want to make the stock stuff work. I don't have many parts since I'm a newbie to 1/32nd scale cars so I can't cobble together too much stuff, yet. However, I have torn down enough of this style motor to have some stronger motor magnets and a few different armatures. I know that ohms isn't perfect for telling you what an arm is capable of but I still use it as a guideline. I found the stock Scalextric arm in the GT40 was 5.4 ohms. I put in a 0.5 ohm arm and it screamed. So I swapped in the 0.5 ohm arm and stronger motor magnets in the stock can. Now I need an end bell that will hold up.

Sooo, what I tried today is to take parts from my HO days and pervert the stock endbell. I took a set of Tyco 440 brush barrels, springs and brushes and drilled the plastic endbell to accept these parts. After tinning the ends of the brush barrels I pushed them in the endbell from the inside out until it hit the stop on the brush barrel then inserted the springs and brushes. Next up I quickly soldered short wires to the ends of the brush barrels that were tinned previously. Hooking up a 6v battery I found the motor spins up easily and seems content. I still haven't put this on the track as I don't have one at home so I don't know how it'll hold up under load.

Anyone else do this stuff? I haven't bothered rewinding the arms yet because of the brush problem. Nor have I changed stack length but I have changed the position of the stack in relation to the shaft in order to center the brushes better on the commutator with the fewest possible number of spacers.

I turned down a Mura endbell to try this but due to my not having any spare parts yet I found I didn't have a Wasp arm to put in the thing

I also figured it's probably overkill for these toy cars anyway so when I finally get the parts it won't be raced.

What are you doing about brushes on these things?

 

[a Bill]

I'm still building a stock of spares. What constitutes a 'proper modern endbell'? Is that like the one used in a 16d? Remember, all this is new to me, I'm from the HO world. Imagine my shock when I found out these big cars with huge motors were slower than molasses

I have Thunderjets that are faster

 

[a Bill]

Fergy, I'd like better motors myself. It wouldn't add to the cost of these cars as they are already overpriced thanks to collectors. Of course, if it weren't for collectors these cars wouldn't look so good.

Larry LS, thank you very much. I didn't try using any of the armatures from my toy cars because I thought they all had the same lousy commutators. Those glued on copper tabs don't true very well as I'm sure you know all too well. I was starting to think I'd just have to get off my lazy butt and shorten the stack on one of the Revell SP500 arms I have then rewind it. I didn't want to go that route just yet as I have very few spare parts and these Revell arms are still perfect.

I changed the jig assembly slightly to suit my odd way of doing things but the article was the sole reason I even attempted to do the endbell mod. It pointed me in the right direction and that was something I needed, direction

Thank you for taking the time to post the pictures and the article.

 

[a Bill]

Silk purse out of sow's ear time..

Yeah, it's kind of overkill for these disposables but it's a weakness of mine

Great info guys, thank you very much.

 

[a Bill]

I've had three motors fail so far and every one of them had the same problem, the brush tension was almost nonexistant. Armature and the rest of the motor were still perfect. That's part of the reason I want to do something about the brushes. The other thing is I like fully adjustable brush assemblies. You can pick up some nice power fast by just using proper brush loading.

You can do some pretty trick stuff with the HO motors and all of them are fully rebuildable. I was a bit disappointed in the 1/32nd scale motors myself but that's what my friends are racing so that's what I race. Mine just won't be quite stock

One thing is for certain, these bigger cars sure do look good.

Another thing that's bothered me about these bigger cars is tires. Why are there 300 different tires? Why are they just silicone like I used on my Thunderjets for nostalgia races? It would be nice if I could buy various height silicone wrapped foam tires like those I used on HO cars. Those things hook great. Until then I'll be trying to make my own. I've already conceded that I'll have to make my own wheels so I may as well make tires too. I stink at this but I better get good if I want to keep up.

My plain jane white Scalextric GT40 already sports a 1/24th scale guide and lead wires as well as some other little things. I think of the car as Frankenstien, built from oodles of parts. The motor is made up from several other motors and I have a few other things I want to change in addition to the things I've already changed.

Fortunately where I currently play with my toy cars the rules are very loose.