Everyone expounds endlessly on motors and magnets, tires and gears. What about that hard working guide pin. Getting slammed around in that slot, no even sees ormentions it's hard work. Would anyone care to share their tips on choice of, care, and tuning of the guide pin? As a novie G3 builder my cars are "pretty fast" but i want to start dialing in the handling and the guide has to have a key role. Please share. mj

mj I know alot has to do with position on a G3, also depth based on track. It's based alot on personal pref's and style and the tweaks really only show up as tenths at a time so there's not a WOW factor, but I too have not really studied it that much. Maybe I should, the hardest working part on my cars is the front bumper lol.

the tweaks really only show up as tenths at a time
I'm only lookin for a couple of tenths..... and less bumper work!! mj

I doubt you'll find a coupl'a tenth's in the guide-pin.
I've tried making them wider at the bottom,using glued on sleeve's,tapering the shaft etc.,nothing ever really showed any improvement from a regular pin,set-up as close to the bottom of the groove as possible,even drilled them out and tried using bigger drill blanks for the pin itself.
As Gene mentioned your best bet is to play with the adjustment in the chassis,personally i like the pin at or just behind the front axle.
If you're looking for a coupl'a tenth's that's a big jump,you're best bet is to start practicing more,a coupl'a hundredth's you can blame on the car,but if you're off by a coupl'a tenth's you need more time driving/practicing,usually you won't find a coupl'a tenth's in the car,if it's already close

Everyone expounds endlessly on motors and magnets, tires and gears. What about that hard working guide pin. Getting slammed around in that slot, no even sees ormentions it's hard work. Would anyone care to share their tips on choice of, care, and tuning of the guide pin? As a novie G3 builder my cars are "pretty fast" but i want to start dialing in the handling and the guide has to have a key role. Please share. mj

A couple things I can share.

1) Guide pin length. I don't know of any situation where longest (without bottoming out) is not the best. The guide pin length can be taylored to the track. Some marker or white paint on the tip of the guide pin can show if it is touching. Make it long enough to almost touch. My own experience is that the BSRT extra length guide pin is still not long enough to touch the bottom of the groove in my Tomy track. So, on my track, all the G3s use the full length long BSRT guide pin. I wish Wizzard had a long pin like this.

2) The Wizzards have the adjustable guide position. Quote from the Wizzard board :"Run your car slowly around the track and listen for a scraping noise as it enters a turn. With an adjustable guide pin, you can lessen the effects of friction or binding by moving the pin one position in either direction until the scraping noise is minimal. You may not go any faster but you may have fewer fall offs. :) "

The way I have ajusted the guid pin is to get warmed up on a lane with some consistent times, then move the pin a few positions one way or the other. Times are either better, worse or 'can't tell a difference'. Addimittedly, many times it is 'can't tell a difference' but occasionally it has led me to quicker times.

We have a mantra in our club locally that goes like this:

"Keep the pin in if you want to win."

You can pick up all kinds of tenths by not having to be marshalled every few laps.

:D

Had a friend that used to lube ths slots on his curves with the TJet red oil to minimize friction, at least that's what he said. Really can't remember any great performance increase using the AFX chassis, but they did seem to be a little quiter if I recall. :eek: rr

Unless it's been changed recently,Wizzards # CHO4A guide-pin is an adjustable length guide-pin,that extends out quite aways :thumbsup:

Is it threaded?

Got a picture?

Main thing with the guide pin is to not let it bottom out on shallow slot tracks and to replace it when it gets too thin. I run the pin directly under the front axle 95% of the time. The only time I move the pin is if there's a chicane in the middle of a straight and trial & error proves that moving it makes it less likely to deslot at the chicane.

The amount of free play in the front end also affects the behavior and performance of the guide pin.

In order of importance, pickup shoes and springs would rank way above guide pin related tuning. I'd say pickups/springs are one of the most important handling related adjustments on the car.

Is it threaded? Nope

Got a picture? Nope.

Basically it's just a collar with a piece of drill blank,the drill blank can be pushed up or down in the collar to adjust length :thumbsup:

I read somewhere about a racer who bent his pin back about five degrees.......... mj

I read somewhere about a racer who bent his pin back about five degrees.......... mj

I've done that lots of times.

Ok, not intentionally, but I've done it.

Unless it's been changed recently,Wizzards # CHO4A guide-pin is an adjustable length guide-pin,that extends out quite aways :thumbsup:

Hey, thanks for pointing this out. I have the stock WS07s in my cars, I didn't know they made a longer guide pin. Looks like the CHO4A is listed on the Wizzard site, so I will have to get a few.

Rabbit Racing sells just a flange that you can install your own 3/64's drill blank into,thus allowing you to build any length of guide-pin that you need.They have 2 differant sizes a .080" thick and a .070" thick flange,i'm not at my notes so i'm not sure which flange fits which car,but a quick measurement with a set of calipers will tell you how thick the flange will need to be
I think you get about 10 of the flanges from Rabbit for about the same price as 1 Wizzard guide-pin
Harvey and Willy at Rabbit Racing are good guys to deal with :thumbsup:

http://www.rabbitracing.com/Misc_Parts.html

:rolleyes: the wizzard guide pin works pretty good on g 3s and tycos but it.s kind of a pain to adjust.