pizzaboy192

iTrader: (2)

I'm having issues with the gears and drive system mostly. compared to my fiancee's which has a ball diff and a silver can, mine is much more "stiff" when rolling. I have difficulty rolling mine when off compared to hers. is there a tip for cleaning these older motors? mine has removable brushes. could those need replacing?

also, what sort of grease or lube on the gears? I'm just using some generic grease that came with a garage door opener repair kit for the plastic gears inside it, but I'm not sure if there is something better.

cheapskate.brok

iTrader: (10)

your motor has stronger magnets than the silver can?

monkeyracing

iTrader: (10)

Run the internal gears dry, or with a tiny spritz of silicone. The best way to track down the binding is to tear it down, eliminating one component at a time.

pizzaboy192

iTrader: (2)

good to know. I put grease in because that is how I got it. I'll peel it apart and clean it off this weekend. I think there's a bit of road junk or astroturf pellets stuck in it.

monkeyracing

iTrader: (10)

Here's another good one. It's a few years old, so there's nothing about oil filled diffs, but it's good stuff for carpet racers.

CraigMBA

iTrader: (22)

Let me say, the mini is absolutely the most fun I ever had for the $90 i spent on it. but i have some questions...

When the car gets on three wheels, that's no good right?

How about it it gets on two? Like three times per lap?!!? I swear I looked like the Joie Chitwood show out there in the main. It never traction rolled, I caught it every time, but it wasn't easy and it couldn't of been fast.

I have fluorescent oranges in front and blues in the rear. Is that right?

With my rear shocks @ 56.5mm OAL, the springs fall out of the buckets about 2mm before full droop. Is that okay?

fresnojay

iTrader: (3)

Ceelo, bro you were smokin fast last night for our track. It was awesome to race with you again but in mini this time. Was a great night of racing.

Also thanks again for all the help given to me by all including Grandpa. I bought a set of spec S grips last night before the races. After scrubbing them in I was able to put in times with my mini I never thought I could get close to. With the front tire change I did manage to pick up a good second a lap as a result. I still need to CA the tires but now have 2 sets of 2ea scrubbed in fronts. The car was on rails and do think once they are CA'ed will stop traction rolling. Still need to work on smoothing out my cornering but its getting there.

Jason

sosidge

If you're springs are falling out of the buckets, that's wasted suspension travel, and will contribute to the wheel lifting. I'll hazard a guess that either the tyres you are running or the suspension setup you are using doesn't require that much shock length.

I always set my car up for 0.5mm to 1mm shock extension droop. So set the car to your desired ride height, measure the shocks, and set them to <1mm longer than that.

Granpa

For Jason and CraigMBA. It sounds like you need to take the cap off the cyano bottle. Try just the fronts first. Just how much you need to cover of the sidewall will vary from track to track. You should cover the entire side wall to where the tread starts.

Lifting the inside rear wheel often happens on a well set up Mini. Two is not good.

Free play of the springs on the shocks is no big deal. I suspect tho that your shocks are longer than 56.5mm. I don't have that situation on my shocks and they are 56.5mm. and the shock collars are almost all the way up. I do use the fluoro blues not the Tamiya Mini blue springs. We used to see this with the short Mini springs. You cannot build shocks shorter than 56mm or you can't get the spring retainer on without resorting to loosening the coupler on the shock shaft and then tightening it after placing the spring and spring retainer.

For myself, I've gone back to the Pit Shimizu tires for "fun running". At the Tamiya track, they are a tad slower and need a little different set up, but my race budget doesn't have enough in it for $100+/month just for tires. I'm keeping one M03 set up for the Tamiya tires and one for the Shimizus. It's too bad cause on the old S-Grips the set ups were nearly identical.

fresnojay

iTrader: (3)

Grandpa, I ran the tires friday night sans CA to scrub them in. I have now CA'ed both sets of fronts and am ready to try them again.

I know that CraigMBA had his sidewalls CA'ed when he got there. He wrenched on the car between heats to try and get it right but was still having 2 wheel motion quite often or as one guy called it "Ghost ride the whip" action.

I really wanted to say thanks and that I am listening to your tips. It ran very well and much better on the S grips just needed the CA that is now in place. I wanted to wait till I got home to apply it, so not to have any issues. Good advice given to me by CraigMBA.

Jason

CraigMBA

iTrader: (22)

I glued mine before I ever turned a wheel (remember, I read the whole thread before I started). Jay decided to scuff his first, I suggested that CAing sidewalls at the track wasn't the hot ticket, and he should wait till he got home because that's not the sort of thing you want to rush.

WELL.

I had three wheel motion, and started making changes to the rear shocks. All I did was make the car worse (lap times). Probably more exciting to watch for the spectators. One commented that I was "Ghost Riding the Whip" which I think means this, but I didn't crash:

+ YouTube Video

Nope, 56.50mm end to end.

I think we found the problem, I am using the Mini Blues.

Is this the one I'm supposed to have?

http://www.tqrcracing.com/shop/produ...w.asp?p_id=597

And while we're at it, is this the spring for the front?

http://www.tqrcracing.com/shop/produ....asp?p_id=2195

Figured that out too while I was screwing up a perfectly decent race car.

Thanks for the tip. What inserts?

ncpantherfan

iTrader: (13)

Granpa,
Thanks for all your help and advice with my set up.
Car was MUCH better on Friday night.
I tried the s grips first heat an it would not turn too well, had to slow way down and it would push out wide.
Second heat I threw my Type a slicks on and the car was almost perfect. only had to drop speed on the 3 180 curves for a fraction of a sec then back on the gun.
Was battling for the lead in the main but go too aggressive and clipped a pipe in a corner, tore the right front of the body off and broke my carbon fiber shock mount
I ordered the new Nissan body to replace the 06 cooper. I hope it will be a little better being a lower body, going to get and prep a JCW cooper body too.

Granpa

Use the Tamiya hard foam insert. The easiest combination to set up is the #456 in front and the 452 in the rear

It takes a couple runs to properly scrub in a set. I don't much care for the new S-Grip tires, BUT they are very fast. But, you have to prep them correctly and scrub them in before racing. Also, I'll go thru 2 pairs of fronts and a pair of rears in 2 weekends. With sales tax and shipping that's close to $60. Your set up has to be spot on. For myself, most of the running is done with a Shimizu tired car. S -Grips are only for a TCS race.

With that said, if the Type A tire is working for you, I wouldn't change. I apologize if I talked you into a set of S-Grips and they didn't work out.

ncpantherfan

iTrader: (13)

Granpa, I had a set of s grips and have used them on the parking lot and on carpet. I like them more on carpet, I was traction rolling with them the few time I drove on carpet. I am probably going to start a regular series every other weekend soon I think. Will I need to make major changes to the set up for the surface change?

Granpa

Wish I could help ya', but really don't know much about carpet. I do know that my base set up will work okay on a carpet track from my one trip to a carpet track. I did some carpet racing, but that was some time ago and things have changed too much for that knowledge to have any value.

Good luck tho and there are some carpet experts here that should be able to help you out.