Scalextric – Maintenance, repairs and troubleshooting of your system

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With slot car racing, because of the nature of the product and the treatment the cars can receive (especially with young children at the helm), things will inevitably break or need maintenance. Can’t think of any other electronic product that gets hurled around your living room at scale speeds of 200mph+! Maintenance, repairs and troubleshooting of your system
Here – unless a car is “dead on arrival”, we do like to encourage customers to carry out their own repairs, it’s really not difficult, and the tools and parts for all the latest cars are readily available. As the saying goes, ” Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.” With proper care and attention your cars and track will last you well and you will find it quicker, cheaper and more satisfying to do your own maintenance in the months and years to come. Learning to drive the cars quickly, but without breaking them (just like real racing drivers) is all part of the hobby.

Scalextric cars are pretty easy to fix and even if you need to fit spare parts, the average hobbyist should have no problem. If you’ve never seen inside one before, the exploded diagram below shows how few parts there are to a car, and that’s including the digital chip. The “Slot Car Handbook” (see Publications page) also contains lots of useful information about maintaining and preparing any slot car for racing.

Maintenance tools
Unless you need spare parts such as a replacement chip, motor or undertray, all you are likely to need to repair and improve your cars’ performance is:
a) a small Philips screwdriver for opening up the car, releasing the rear wing and guide blade
b) a small battery or lighter fuel powered soldering iron and solder for chipping cars and generally mending broken wires
c) scissors or wire cutters, and wire strippers or some teeth
d) some superglue, hotglue or just Blu-tack for seating and holding in-car chips and LEDs, and also for securing/repairing loose or broken wings etc.
e) a bradawl for making holes in the undertray for digital LEDs for cars that don’t already have a suitable hole provided
f) some electrical tape for covering any bare soldered joints
g) lubricant and track cleaner (see our accessories section)

Wings, car undertrays, and other parts
Most problems you encounter are likely to be electrical or chip-related, and fixes for these are covered in the troubleshooting guide. The most likely physical breakages that would occur will be front and rear wings, wing mirrors and barge boards. For current and recent car models these can all be ordered as spare parts. We don’t stock them but we can order them in for you or you can contact Hornby direct – they are easy enough to fit yourself. Please consult the service sheets to find the part you require. If your car is not on the service sheet list it may be that the parts are no longer available from Hornby, but it may still be possible to track them down via specialist old parts suppliers or on Ebay – ask for more info. If your car’s actual body breaks, (e.g. someone trod on a car and cracked the roof), you will need to return it to Hornby for repair as car bodies are not available as spare parts.

If your car’s undertray breaks (most likely where the guide blade pivots, following an accident), you will need to replace the whole undertray. A broken guide pivot point cannot be successfully glued to withstand the forces of racing. Again the part numbers for these are on the service sheets. To replace a car undertray it’s the work of about 10-15 minutes to take all the components (see example in diagram above) off the broken one and pop them on the new one. Being the most stressed area on the car it’s a common break point – it’s a good thing to learn how to replace an undertray, as in doing so you learn about how the whole car fits together and you will probably need to replace many throughout your years in the hobby. Modern Scalextric cars are designed for easy maintenance. To replace an undertray, simply unscrew the bottom of the car, lift out the driver cage (on saloons), pop out the rear wheels, lever out the motor, wiggle out the digital chip and LED (if any) and unscrew the guide blade. On many cars the front wheels are part of the undertray, but remember to swap over any performance tyres and magnets you installed on the old one. Then simply put everything back in place on the new undertray. The rear wheels and motor just click in, the LED and chip may need a bit of hotglue, superglue or just Blu-tack to hold them in place, replace the driver cage and thread the wires neatly through the interior, avoiding them touching any moving parts. Screw in the guide blade, replace the car’s body and you’re done. If you are at all concerned about getting everything back together again, take a snapshot of the inside of the car with your cameraphone before you start.

Sanding your tyres Are you buffing up your tyres? You will possibly be quite surprised what a difference this makes to the grip level and speed of your car. Whilst on track, simply place the rear wheels of your car over some sandpaper, tape the sandpaper in position and hold the rear of the car very slightly raised (try not to tilt it) while you give it a blast of full throttle for about 10-20 seconds. This roughs up the tyre surface, flattens any imperfections and also brings the magnet (if you have one) a tiny bit closer to the track. A car you previously thought was absolutely pants will gain a new lease of life! Eventually of course you will need new tyres but not for a long while. There is a full article on this at at Slot Forum.

A General Rule Of Thumb; Drive Carefully – Think Logically.
Digital racing works best as a non-contact sport! You will find a successful, smart overtaking move is much more satisfying than a pile-up. Look out ahead for stationary cars on or across your lane! Try and look after your cars and be prepared to take them apart and fix them yourself if necessary, as breakages resulting from racing are very unlikely to be covered by warranty. If you should however find a car is not behaving itself, logically go through all the components that could be causing the problem. Don’t automatically assume it’s a problem with the car. It could also be the track, the power supply, or the controller. Did you just have a crash? See if any of the other solutions listed in our guide offer a clue. And always try a process of elimination by swapping cars, track and controllers around to narrow down the likely cause.

original article created by www.slotcarcentre.co.uk