100 replies to this topic

[Pablo]

Gear mesh was perfect. She passes the drivetrain test with flying colors, and is ready for a track test 6 May.

 

Bud, you owe dc-65x a big "thank you" for the new Faas vintage 64 pitch spur gear - very rare and very fine

 

 

 

 

[Bill from NH]

In the days before angle pinions, those bronze Faas spurs would develop quite a burr on the outer face when running straight tooth pinions. I used to reface this area with a lathe to get more running time from them. Faas spurs with greater than 41 teeth had 1/8" bores but included a machined reducer for 3/32" axles.

[Pablo]

Yup. The reducer popped right out no problemo and with a Koford Gold Billet screw, it's balanced real nice

[Pablo]

Bud, I found a new unpainted Parma #1039B T70 Lola Coupe body in my stash - looks exactly like the body Mike used on the original car:

 

http://slotblog.net/...s-usra-1968-04/

 

I'd recommend after the test you clean and squirrel away the TrueScale Ferrari then paint and mount the Lola.

Use it to run the crap out of the car - you can replace it for $7.00

 

http://e-slotcar.com...oupe-par-1039b/

 

There may never be another TS 330 body like this one

 

 

 

 

[Pablo]

Track test results, all good, no problems noted.

Motor runs super cool and has plenty of power.

Handling is all I could ask for, very forgiving, planted in the slot real nice, drifts very controllably.

 

Bud and I waited very patiently all day to test it when the race practice traffic was light enough to avoid problems.

Actually had to wait until all the racing was done before doing it.

 

After I drove it about 20 laps I was happy with it and handed it over to Bud.

I turned my back for a few seconds and during that time the car was placed on the track at full power.

 

Punched the bank and entered the Deadman at full power, all uncommanded.

Bud never even touched the trigger on his controller and watched his car hit the wall, bounce up to the ceiling, then hit the cement floor. I didn't see it, but I heard it.

 

It happened so fast I couldn't even believe it. It took 3 people searching to actually find the car.

The entire rear drivetrain was left laying on the track and the motor was completely ripped free of the chassis.

 

So she is going to require a complete teardown, inspection, rebuild, and retumble at a minimum.

The full extent of the damage isn't known yet, but I will fix it.

 

That's racin'. Or should I say, "testing"   The good news is, nobody got hurt

[Kim Lander]

Hmmmm....maybe I should put one of my Havlicek power plants in my inline Pablo built  Ferrari 330 and have a race with Bud....oh well..just a thought.

[Samiam]

 

I turned my back for a few seconds and during that time the car was placed on the track at full power.

 

Punched the bank and entered the Deadman at full power, all uncommanded.

Bud never even touched the trigger on his controller and watched his car hit the wall, bounce up to the ceiling, then hit the cement floor. I didn't see it, but I heard it.

Paul,

Was this a controller malfunction of some sort or was the controller hooked up wrong?

[bluecars]

My first thought was controller hooked up wrong, but I was standing right next to Bud when it happened, I looked down quickly and that wasn't the case. Real shame. After picking up the pieces he put another car on and everything worked fine. One thing I have done in the past was lay the controller down in such a way that the trigger was pressed, (Billy doesn't have controller cradles just a boxed tray) hook it up and the car take off. I never did that much damage but that might be a possibility.

[Pablo]

Hmmmm....maybe I should put one of my Havlicek power plants in my inline Pablo built  Ferrari 330 and have a race with Bud....oh well..just a thought.

What happened to the H motor that was in it when it left here?

 

[Pablo]

The following post-test Ferrari damage assessment isn't intended to be anything other than factual.

Accidents happen. Fortunately, in slot cars nobody gets hurt

The damage was extensive, in fact the car is totalled (in my opinion). There is good news, along with the bad.

 

The good:

 

-body is still almost perfect. Thanks to a sweet TrueScale body, inside decals, quality outside stickers and decals coated with Mop n Glo.

Jairus interior, zero damage

 

 

-rear axle tube, separated from the car, but zero damage or misalignment of the vintage unshielded ball bearings.

All four wheels, tires, and inserts, no damage

 

 

Both PCH axles still perfectly straight

 

[Pablo]

The bad:

 

-rear of motor box and a brace are missing in action, multiple broken joints, drop arm disconnected and bent.

-all four pin tubes bent, pan wire torsioner destroyed, main rails bent

 

 

-it appears rear axle tube and motor broke loose at full power. Spur gear grabbed the motor mount gizmo and screws and did some high speed chewing

 

 

 

 

Endbell has a large crack. Pinion didn't go down without a fight - it chewed on the bushing flange 

 

 

Motor teardown revealed no damage and it still runs fine. But just to be safe it needs to go in for a checkup.

Rebalance, comm check, minimum.

 

I forgot the best of the "Good News":

She punched the bank full bore no problemo, and the Havlicek arm/Pablo built motor was, uh, plenty powerful

 

[Bill from NH]

On the remake, how about the selective use of silver solder & tie wire?

[Pablo]

Excellent question, Sir. I'll be thinking about it for sure.

In a hit as hard as that, something has to give.

 

Failures are always an opportunity to improve

[havlicek]

This is pretty sad to see.  It's obvious that the car took a huge hit, and I doubt that much could have been done to prevent such severe damage.  What I "like" about this is your "it is what it is, so it's time to get busy and fix stuff" attitude Pablo.  Builders build!

[Bill from NH]

Not to minimize the situation, but before the photo postings, I had expected to see worse damage, based on verbal accounts of the crash. Much of this car is still reusable for another build since it didn't have to go home in a "brown-paper bag." It appears the chassis took the brunt of the force in the crash, But that's not necessarily bad since chassis are a disposable element.

[Pablo]

Concur. Since I have the chassis sitting in front of me, shouldn't take long to make a new one.

[Pablo]

The arm appeared undamaged, shaft was still straight, and the CA held the mags fine.

I sent the arm back to Alpha for a check anyway, just to be absolutely sure

 

[Pablo]

New endbell is 100% blueprinted and brushes re-radiused with my new Koford tool

 

[Pablo]

As I broke in and re-tested the rebuilt motor, I looked at my notes from page 1 (thanks to Slotblog):

"2 volts, 2.2 amps, increased gradually to 2.4 amps, then decreased and stablized at a final 2.13 amps after 20 minutes.

3 volts, 2.9 amps, steady decrease to 2.3 amps after 12 minutes, barely warm, stopped, cooled, re-oiled."

 

She acts almost exactly the same as before (maybe even better), so I know she's good to go

Maybe this time she can actually punch a hole in the ceiling instead of merely bouncing off it

[Pablo]

Time to save the surviving chassis parts and discard the rest.

This is actually going to be fun, I love tearing stuff up

"I built it, and I can fix it"

 

[Pablo]

That was actually fun   Whatever parts are still perfect I'll save.

The rest go right into the round file - water under the bridge

 

 

 

[Bill from NH]

More solder soup!

 

Was this car too covered by a Pablo repair contract?

[Pablo]

Yep. 100% covered, no deductible

[Pablo]

Straightened the motor bracket, re-floated the bracing wires, and re-faced it with 400 wet/dry.

 

 

The gouges in the doubler were re-faced and remain as battle scars 

Bracket is now flat and ready for installation

 

 

My theory has always been, crashing is simply an opportunity to find weak spots in the design and improve them.

Drop arm inspection results:

-brass piece itself was slightly bent, and tweaked back to flat no problemo

-hinge rod was bent and discarded

-flag tubing was intact, but tweaked in it's mounting nest

 

Front axle tube was OK so I removed the uprights, sucked the solder and re-polished it

 

 

I re-floated the flag tubing and reinforced it with additional wire pieces.

It's much stronger now

 

 

 

[Pablo]

Both pans were still almost perfectly flat.

All attached wires and tubes were bent, especially the tubes, and all were discarded.