[RichD]

Those cars have been out of production for nearly 50 years, I do not know of any regular dealer that has complete cars or chassis. The leaf style pickups wear quickly on railed tracks, someone does make reproduction pickups, however. The later Tyco Pro cars had spring loaded button style pickups that can be problematic.
I did a search on ebay and found quite a few Tyco Pro cars, but those were up for bids, I did not see any "buy it now" offerings.

 

[demether]

Thank you for your help,

I just found 3 chassis (button guide, shortbase), since I already have 2 (leaf guide, one long wheel base and one short) have my race serie ! The difficult part will be to find nice bodies...to be honest, most of the tycopro bodies are ugly. Maybe lexan ?


the other problem will be the laptiming detection. I'm using reedswitchs, wich work fine even with tjet, but the brass plate may be a problem...

 

[RichD]

The brass chassis would not reduce the amount of magnetic attraction, however the motor magnets are weak and they would be a long way from the track. I measured about 200 gauss at the magnets and 50 gauss on the bottom of the car. The downforce measurement on a Doane scale is zero. You may have to switch to dead strips or IR sensors.

 

[demether]

I thought about that, at worst I'll add a tiny magnet on the guide, or something like that. Just enough to "clic" the reedswitches (wich are pretty accurate, even with tjets).

 

[cbwho]

I have a suspicion that later Tyco bodies may fit TycoPro chassis but I don't have enoughl ater Tyco cars (I only have 1). So perhaps others will confirm?

i quite like the classic TycoPro bodies.

 

[cbwho]

Btw, to tune the TycoPro button cars, you can place tiny O-rings on the top side of the "plunger" to reduce the travel. Makes the cars hug the curves more at a small cost of top end speed. Make sure the o rings fit snug and are tiny!

 

[demether]

thank you for the help !

 

[model murdering]

TP's are really a labor of love.

There are 3 pick up arrangements. Tycopro l as a regulation drop arm with foils, and a ferrous pan. Tycopro ll uses a pan with fixed goose-neck. The early TPll had foils, the later had pogos. The well sorted TP1 is much more forgiving on sectional, and flat smokes either version of the TP ll.

For TP ll, care should be taken to ensure that one actually has a brass pan, and not a brass plated ferrous pan. The latter has magnetic properties equivalent to the ferrous TP l pan. A real brass pan TP will tarnish kinda dull and eventually verdigris to the green side. Obviously a magnet wont stick to it.

I convert to braids. Smoother, quieter, and no extra spring tension like the foils.

Some parts are getting scarce. The pinion and crown gear are hypoid. Note that the pinion mesh is underslung. It's what gives them the low motor CG, AND a silky gear mesh. There isnt a substitute that gives the smooth mesh required.

Remember that the rear axle diameter is different/smaller. All the flashy after market wheels wont work. The front tires are also unique. I did see that some one was repopping them. Other front wheels are adaptable, via a stub axle conversion.

Keep your eye out for the bulk lots.

Good Luck!

Bill

 

[demether]

For TP ll, care should be taken to ensure that one actually has a brass pan, and not a brass plated ferrous pan. The latter has magnetic properties equivalent to the ferrous TP l pan. A real brass pan TP will tarnish kinda dull and eventually verdigris to the green side. Obviously a magnet wont stick to it.

I convert to braids. Smoother, quieter, and no extra spring tension like the foils.


Bill

Thank you for the infos and tips ! I'll see if my tycopros are iron or brass. I'm also very interested into your braids mods, did you post it somewhere I can see ? thank you

dimitri

 

[demether]

Hi,

I received my tycopro chassis, unfortunatly they are with ferrous pan, instead of brass. What is consequence of this ? thanks

 

[cbwho]

Hi,

I received my tycopro chassis, unfortunatly they are with ferrous pan, instead of brass. What is consequence of this ? thanks

I believe the weight won't be as much and could be a tad magnetic. So the car won't be as "gravity" as a true brass car.

I myself would enjoy the car.

 

[demether]

Thank you. A tad magnetic may be a good thing, since I use reed switchs for laptiming. I now have 5 tycopros, 4 short wheelbase and one long wheel base. This last one will be a parts donator if needed. Three of them are "iron", I still need to test the 4th (wich is in my cellar for now). I hope it will be the same, for balance.

I will also modify the cars with braids (thank you for the help), and probably will go the lexan way for the bodies...Not sure, but I think it would be cool. I don't like the tycopro bodies, plus the fact they are expensive.

 

[demether]

Update : my memory is not very good these days...I thought I had 2 tycopro chassis, in fact I only have one, a long wheel base one. GOod news is that it's a real brass pan, bad new is that it's long wheel base 🤣


Now I have to find matching bodies for my 3 short wheel base chassis and one for my long wheel base one. Lexan doesn't work, it's too wide for the tycopro. Afx/xtraction bodies are almost a good match, not perfect. So I guess I will have to find tyco bodies. Or resin matching the wheelbase. Any help will be greatly appreciated to find these.

thanks

 

[cbwho]

Could you post a picture of your chassis?

All of my TycoPro chassis are the same. So I'm a bit curious about what you have.

 

[demether]

I'll post comparison pics today, no problem.

 

[demether]

Here's a pic of comparison between short and long wheelbase. the long wheelbase chassis is brass.

 

[demether]

other pics :

 

[demether]

with racemasters bodies mockup :

 

[cbwho]

Interestingly, all my chassis happen to be short wheel base. I wonder which vintage bodies are long?

As for your newest bodies, they look fabulous!