7 replies to this topic

[Isaac S.]

As many may have noticed these cars don't have the speed to conquer even a small commercial 1/24 track. 

 

1st, is that they need more speed. Bank's are nearly impossible and short straights are topped out a 1/3 through.

 

2nd, the guide design isn't very good. 

 

3rd, grip is a problem. At top speed the thin urethanes don't have it. 

 

4th, gear mesh is almost always bad because these old brittle nylon gears are just horrible. 

 

#1: I changed to taller gearing to change this. A cox crown works great. 

 

#2: I cut off the one side of guide and drilled a hole through that, the lead wire thing, braid and the other side. I then screwed everything together. It works very well

 

#3: I found a pair of 1/32 sized 5/40 wheels with soft molded on silicone's. The main thing is that you should find a wider tire. The originals are soft enough but in the curves they don't have enough surface area on the track. The wheels I found are also smaller diameter which should help with speed. 

 

#4: The Cox gear fixes this greatly. Works so well. 

 

Here are some pics of the modifications

 

 

P.S. doing this with the black chassis doesn't work as the axle to motor mount length is too short.  

[Bill from NH]

Issac, I've never owned a Strombecker.  Racing a Strombecker against other Strombeckers or in vintage racing is okay. But if I came across a Strombecker body I just had to build into  a runner, I'd construct a brass/wire chassis & use an FK, maybe an FF-050, motor to stick under it. There are other brands of slot cars I categorize the same way too. Your modifications look fine, I just would have gone in a different direction. You have your own home track, I don't.

[Isaac S.]

My goal was only to slightly modify an existing vintage chassis/set up. I think it is slightly funner that way. I like to stay in period and doing what I did is what many did in the era. 

 

My Igarachi car is mainly what I use on my home track.  This one is too fast for mine, before or now.   

[don.siegel]

These were pretty standard modifications on Strombecker cars at the time, even for running at home. I did it to a couple Strombecker cars I had at the time, and have found quite a few like this. Strombecker also sold a modification kit with threaded wheels (well, kind of, wheels were smooth over a 3/32 axle, but had two lock nuts each to hold them on) and a not great set of bevel gears... 

 

For our 2019 Rods & Customs event in Bordo, I ran a sort of stock Strombecker Hot Rod, but with a Buzco X-10 "Red Bomb" motor and threaded wheels, plus urethane tires on the back... I probably didn't run it in enough: pretty slow at the start, but got faster throughout the race (6 x 3 min.). On a 6-lane Carrera track, about 90 to 100 ft long. It finished mid-pack and was enjoyable to race. 

 

Don 

[Isaac S.]

I really want to get a Red Bomb for mine. They are so cool. 

[Bob Lalich]

I have modified all my Strombecker set cars. I have added axle bushings, threaded axles, wheels, wider urethane rear tires, and Cox crown gears. Here is an example. In this case, the old motor was bad and I replaced it with an S-can motor. This car is as fast as any of my Revell or Monogram kit cars on my home track.

If anyone recognizes the black plastic adapter that wraps around the S-can to allow it to snap in the chassis, please let me know. I can't recall the source.

 

 

Attached Images

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[Isaac S.]

I was talking about the 1964ish black chassis with the Igarachi. The axle to motor length is too short for the cox crown gear. The hub hits the pinion gear. 

 

Very cool. Sounds fun. 

[Isaac S.]

Found a pinion gear that I was able to press on further making the Igarachi chassis work, still very tight though. Didn't have a low tooth count Cox but I did have a Weldun. Also thought slicks would look cool so I put some cut-down Cox Super Slicks on. Here it is.