A couple years ago I bought 20 t-jet cars real cheap at Lightning Fest but did'nt have a track so they just sat in a box till now. I got a good deal on a Life-like 4 lane track and have been trying to get the t-jet cars to work on it, They won't go more than 3 or 4 feet with out poping out of the slot. Any trick to get them to work on this track or is it a lost cause? I already tried to flip the guide pins around but no help. Any suggestions?...Thanks

The problem I had with LifeLike track and t-jets was the spacing of the rails. I can't remember if they were too wide or narrow but the cars just wouldn't make solid contact. I'm not sure why they would pop out of the slot but my first suggestion would be to trim the length of the guide pin, just a little at a time, and see if that helps.
Later, The got rid of all my LifeLike track years ago but I kept the cars Rockinator

Well,
Where do we start? LL isn't the best track for tjets but it can be made to work. Key is to get the joints nice and tight and smooth. Next start looking for a Tomy AFX set. This will get you set up for some better times with the pancake motor driven styles from Aurora, JL or AW. With the LL track, you'll have better results running the magnet cars from LL, TYCO, and maybe the Aurora AFX or JL/AW Xtracs. Tjets are great old school design brought back by JL when they were part of Playing Mantis. (Thank you ever so much Tom Lowe and keep the new AW stuff coming). Very tempermental on LL tracks, have to have spring tension adjusted, right size guide pin, smooth front tires, wheels in balance, silicones on the back side and I'm just starting at the tip of the iceberg. :eek:

Wait until the the experts start hitting on this thread. You're going to go crazy in Tjet heaven.:freak:

Basically, keep the cars and get a new track to start, unless you want to sell me the cars. :) Dave

What resistors are used in Life-Like controllers? If they are 45 ohm controllers, it would be miraculous to keep a TJet in the slot on a 9-inch radius corner. Actually, the acceleration could often torque an untuned TJet off on a straight too. I never liked TJets until I got controllers with higher resistance. 90 to 120 ohms are needed.

the 1st batch of jl slots had too strong of spring on the pickup shoes and if i remeber right short pins ..Try removing the shoes and crushing the spring with you fingers.if this dont help try removing one coil .

Hi scott1091,

Make sure none of the axles are bent. If you use the stock tires, you may want to run sand them. The pick up shoes you can place a piece of shrink wrap on the top of the hanger to limit travel. Randy.

I remember reading when the first JL cars came out that the guide pins were too short. This I believe was corrected either in series 2 or 3.
What to do about the short guide pin? Here's the solution I read about; each JL car comes with an extra guide pin. Take the extra guide pin and break off the pin. Then take the remaing part (with the screw hole) and put it underneath the original guide pin. This will have the effect of making the pin longer.
You may still have problems with spring tension and controller resistance, but the guide pin fix costs you nothing (especially if the guide pins are truly too short to be used on their own).

Joe

Any pancake car need to be tweaked when taking it out of the box/blister. JL/AW's Thunderjets are no exception. First thing you need to check is the wear pattern on the pickup shoes (especially for jewel-case cars). The twist ties that hold the car down will make the shoes 'point' directly at the track. slightly adjust that angle until a more even wear pattern is seen. Then check for nubs on the tires...They will sand off easily. Then check for untrue rims and bent axles and replace them. Usually these three checkpoints will smooth out the performance.

I run life like track with a hi performace 22 volt Tyco transformer, ne for each lane... I guess I'm lucky, my t-jets run just fine. I swap out the rubber rears and use silicones, so maybe that helps. Making sure the track is smooth at the joints is key, as in with any track.

TK Solver is right--the LL controllers are 45 ohms and are all but useless for Tjets. They're kinda like an on-off switch. Full throttle or nothin'. At the very least, you will see a big difference if you can get your hands on some Tyco/Mattel controllers, which will plug into older-style LL terminal track with very little modification--something like cutting off the fin on the side of the plastic-rubber connector plug. The Tyco controllers are cheap junk too and are no replacement for a proper Parma or better, but they're built no worse than the LLs and at least the 75-ohm resistors in them will offer much more control for Tjets than the LLs. Most people see a night-and-day difference just plugging in the Tyco controllers. Email me if you want to try a pair--I have a whole box of them that aren't being used.

--rick