Tyco-B hybrid motors
During the Pittman Era, the practice of de-winding and re-winding slot car armatures to improve their performance was still fairly uncommon. Instead, builders swapped armatures between motor setups in an attempt to get an edge on the competiton.
Swapping a high performance Pittman DC-196B or DC-65A-6 armature into a Tyco sidewinder made it into a hybrid motor builders and racers called a Tyco-B.
Some builders also replaced the stock Tyco brush assembly with equivalent parts from the DC-65 motor.
Jack Beers wrote: The arm from the 196B was also a good swap into the Tyco sidewinder motor-especially with ball bearings. I would routinely use brushes, brush plate and the plunger and spring assembly from the 65A to complete the job. The 65A6V arm was also a popular swap into the Tyco sidewinder back then. This was maybe 3-4 months before we saw the first can motors with real speed-late 1964-early 1965.
The "Tyco-B" conversion, as it was called was employed by several of the hotshoes at Motorama whan I raced there. I had built a car with a stock 6V Tyco and gotten clobbered by 2 of them in a weekly race. After that I built 2 or 3 of them (the old gray matter is somewhat foggy here) and was able to run with the fast guys for a little while and actually win a couple. The 3-pole 196B arm seemed to have more snap off the corners than the 5-pole 65 arms but not quite as much top speed. Not surprising, but the 196B arm seemed to fit my driving "style" (such as it was) a bit better.
If you have additional information and/or photos of hybrid Tyco sidewinder motors, please reply!
