[Springbok]

Hi All,
I have recently aquired a NINCO Mitsubishi Lancer WRC and noticed that the two of the wheels have a really bad wobble to them. This appears to be caused by badly out of round rims. As we race this class of car as non-magnet, I fear the wobbly wheels will compromise performance.
Can anyone recommend replacement wheels for this car? Would Slot-it or some other manufacturer have suitable wheels to fit this car?

Cheers,
Henning

 

[Ember]

Two basic choices available.

First option, replace the wheels with Ninco ones (Ninco in their wisdom use a 2.48mm axle). Ninco make alloy wheels and inserts if that is allowed under your club rules or you can buy replacement plastic ones.

Second option is probably more expensive. To replace the wheels with Slot.it or similar you will need to replace the complete drive train; axle, bearings/bushings, crown and pulleys. Not sure, but I think if you go this route you may have to ditch the suspension.

I chose the Ninco alloy option for my rally cars when the Ninco hubs split.

Embs

 

[Springbok]

Hi Embs,
Thanks for the information regarding the NINCO axle size. This is my first NINCO car so I do not know that much about them. Anyway, our club will not allow Slot-it axles/wheels/gears on this class so I may have to get some NINCO alloy wheels and fit a set of Super Tires.

Cheers,
Henning

 

[munter]

Hello Henning
You will find the alloy wheels much better(truer)than the plastic ones.
Take care when you purchase as Ninco do make alloy wheels with a 3/32 ID as opposed to their standard of 2.48mm ID.
The same wheels are available in both axle sizes.
regards

 

[Screwneck]

99.9% of Ninco hubs are simply fine and true, so it's mighty odd you got a 50% failure rate on this car. The easiest thing is to simply replace the hubs with fresh Ninco plastic hubs, or get a refund from the shop you bought this clearly faulty car from.

 

[Ember]

Don't know that i'd bother with attempting a refund. Remember they are toys we are buying and nothing more.

I also disagree on the assumption of quality for Ninco cars. Of 10 or so in the collection at least 4 had seriously dodgy wheels to begin with and another 3 finished up with split hubs. Result being I usually change the drive train on a Ninco car as soon as I can afford to do it. With the 4x4 cars I swapped to Ninco alloys to keep suspension.

The front wheels on the new Jag are shocking and will eventually be changed, possibly for Racer ones.

Embs

 

[Springbok]

Thanks for all the information. One last question, are the NINCO alloy wheels the same size (diameter and width) as the plastic wheels so that I could use the existing tires on the car?

Cheers,
Henning

 

[stoner]

they may be only toys, but the,ve still got to be fit for purpose, these clearly arn,t . have a word with the vendor you might get lucky, if it goes pear shaped remind them of the bad publicity they could receive. john.

 

[StuBeeDoo]

I've had problems with Ninco wheels as well. Currently, I've got 2 sets away at WASP being turned into inserts for the Slot.It rims I've replaced them with.

 

[strongbow]

I have 4 Ninco cars. A Ford Focus and a Subaru Impreza both had seriously wobbly wheels and as I run magless, this was very much apparent on the track. I changed the wheels, tyres, axles, bushings and gears for Slot.it ones, and even had matching inserts from Slot.it installed that I painted the right colour with an airbrush.

The other two are both Ford GTs, one is the standard Matech blue one that, although still has a slight degree of wobble, runs fine. The other one is the silver Prorace one that is just excellent. I really suggest buying Prorace versions of Ninco cars as they will cost you less in the end due to the better wheels and gears.

That said, FLY and Scalex have wobbly wheels as well (the Scalex Corvette I bought recently comes to my mind), so it's not just a Ninco problem. Some of the cars are better, some worse, but generally they all seem to get better lately.

 

[Ember]

QUOTE (stoner @ 2 Jan 2012, 20:30) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>they may be only toys, but the,ve still got to be fit for purpose, these clearly arn,t . have a word with the vendor you might get lucky, if it goes pear shaped remind them of the bad publicity they could receive. john.
Sorry, but one could without too many problems argue that they are cut for the purpose of being run under magnets by children.

 

[Savage]

QUOTE (strongbow @ 2 Jan 2012, 10:03) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>I really suggest buying Prorace versions of Ninco cars as they will cost you less in the end due to the better wheels and gears.

I disagree !
Pro race cars are a waste of money IMO, the axles are not hardened, grub screws are made of chocolate and the gear mesh is still rough.
Newer Pro-races have the podded chassis, but still poor IMO, QC at Ninco seems to have gone out of the window latley.

 

[strongbow]

Yes, you can't compare them with Slot.it or NSR quality-wise, that's true. But a Prorace car will be set you back only 10 GBP more than a standard one and won't bounce around the track due to wobbly plastic wheels. Either that or replacing the axles, wheels, gear, pinion, bushings and tyres with Slot.it parts, which will be considerably more than 10 GBP in the end (although worth it to some, including me).

 

[DrH]

QUOTE (Savage @ 3 Jan 2012, 19:09) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>I disagree !
Pro race cars are a waste of money IMO, the axles are not hardened, grub screws are made of chocolate and the gear mesh is still rough.
Newer Pro-races have the podded chassis, but still poor IMO, QC at Ninco seems to have gone out of the window latley.

I have to agree with you savage.
We run a rally class at our club. I have a Ninco Pro race C4 which i have had to change the wheels gears and axles for slot it, runs well now.

Have you checked that the tangs from manufacture are not causing the problem?
You could try trueing the wheels first?
To do this take off the tyres and run the wheels on sandpaper gently applying throttle.
Sand off any excess plastic on the sides of the wheels.
You should be able to find some replacement Ninco wheels somewhere.

Dave

 

[Springbok]

Dave,
I have put the wheels on my tire truer machine and took some of the wobble out of them. I was, however, reluctant to take too much off the wheels in case I had problems with the tire not fitting properly afterwards. I also trued the tires fitted on the wheels and that helped a bit as well. They may be alright now but they still have a slight wobble which might be exaggerated by the non-magnet setup. If I can find a set of alloy wheels to fit the axles, that may be my best option.

Cheers,
Henning