17 replies to this topic

[Champion 507]

Does anyone know if Mura will be resurrected or can we say a final goodbye to a 50-year old cornerstone of our hobby? 

[Bill from NH]

What rumors have you heard, Doug? I know nothing.

 

About 10-12 years ago, I heard the aged west coast owners were in poor health and had sold Mura to some South Koreans. If that was true, I never heard of any products coming from them.

 

At one time in the past, John Havlicek was buying Mura arm blanks and/or comms from a mailorder site. I have no idea who owned this site; perhaps John remembers.

[Samiam]

About 10-12 years ago, I heard the aged west coast owners were in poor health and had sold Mura to some South Koreans.

Why wasn't this matter of national interest brought up during the recent visit of the S Korean president?

[Champion 507]

Bill, up until a few years ago you could buy blank arms/comms directly from their website muramotors.com but the site has been gone for 3-4 years or so.

[Bill from NH]

Perhaps that website was just liquidating merchandise bought from the former owners? I would think PdL could answer, but I surely can't. Mura still sold quality motor parts when they were available.

[havlicek]

The Mura website has been down for years now, and as far as I know, there's probably only some leftovers (of Mura's modern items) at distributors that may not be available much longer, if at all. The modern stuff, that I think Barney had a hand in helping them develop, was really good... but fell out of favor and Mura just faded away.  

 

When I was buying arm and motor parts from them, they would still press and powdercoat arms to length, and they had a very nice comm as well... they called it their "Diamond Cut Comm"... that was fatter than the current 200"-210" size you see, and still had hooked comm tabs. They had everything you'd need, including shafts, setups, magnets, screws, hardware etc., and then one day I couldn't contact them.  

 

I'm pretty certain that the time to say "goodbye" to an industry icon was years ago.

[TSR]

Mura is long gone but I do correspond with Ron Mura on a regular basis, and he will be one of the guests at the grand opening of the LASCM, now that we have the actual display room (10 years in the making!) nearly completed. Glass is next, then product display installation.

 

[Champion 507]

Great update, PdL. Thank you.

 

Does anyone know where the last owners of Mura were or had any contact with them other than buying parts from them? Does their tooling still exist? Or has it been sold? or scrapped?

 

Don't misunderstand me. I'm not looking to buy it. They made a good product and it costs so much to make new tooling these days. It would be a shame if someone couldn't resurrect the company.

[Bill from NH]

If anyone knew, my bet would be on PdL. Since he didn't mention it in his above posts, my conclusion is he doesn't know either. I would like to see more Mura endbells and their drawn C-cans, which I question if they ever came to market.

[TSR]

I do not know. When Mura was sold to Woody, this is when my knowledge of what happened after, ends.

[Champion 507]

PdL, is he the same guy who was Woody950 on ebay?
 
Bill, I currently have two or three of Mura's drawn cans and have owned another one. I have also seen them as complete motors in factory packaging hanging on peg hooks. Of course I have no idea how many were made or how long they were made. It's been a few years since I have seen any at all because I don't go to tracks very often because they are so far away.

[Bill from NH]

Thanks for the Mura can info, I last was in a commercial raceway in 2010 and the local club track I sometimes run with doesn't use C-cans. All I ever saw of their drawn cans was some printed advertising.
 
Woody950 on eBay isn't the same Woody who owned Mura. I used to have Woody950's real name, but I haven't noticed him on eBay for a couple years. Woody950's real name is Loman Carter. As I recall, he sometimes used a second eBay nickname, too. He is listed as living in Newhall, CA. Need a phone number?

[Champion 507]

Bill,

 

This is as close to NOS as I have.

 

 

[Bill from NH]

Doug,

 

Thanks for the photos. I hadn't seen these cans up close before. I'll have to go through my old slot car mags.

 

I'm thinking Mura was releasing two versions of drawn cans, the one like yours above and another for adjustable timing with twisted endbells.

 

Have you checked any Mura drawn cans to determine how straight they are coming from the factory? The folded Mura cans I have of this version have been remarkably straight..

[NY Nick]

I have one new in the bag can only.

 

Did they change the endbell?

[Champion 507]

Bill,

 

I think they did put slots in the can where you could adjust endbell timing. No I don't have any of those. I have not checked can straightness yet. I agree, almost all of their older cans were straight that I checked with my JDS can slug.

 

Nick,

 

I think they made slight changes to their endbell. I stumbled upon a card of 6 NOS Mura bare endbells with bushings recently. I'll take a pic or 2 and post them here soon. These new ones don't have the outside flange on the top and bottom of the endbell plastic so you can rotate them to adjust timing. I'm sure a file could correct an older endbell to work in the adjustable can, but since I don't have an adjustable can, I can't say for sure.

[Champion 507]

I talked to a track owner this weekend. He said his customers had problems with the bushings coming loose in the cans and endbells in this last generation of Mura motors. Anyone else have these problems? I know ProSlot endbells have had loose bushing issues for a few years.

[Bill from NH]

I haven't heard that before, but I haven't recently built any Mura motors either. If I experienced loose can bushings, I would solder them in. For endbells, I'd use an adhesive..Years ago when we ran built 16Ds, I would score the endbell bushings to increase their surface ares & use a clear epoxy to hold them in.