How do you keep them running? I run on tomy track and I can not keep them running I know you have to tweak the pickups but not exactly sure what I am doing! They just stop or run jerky.

You are right- having the shoes sitting flat on the rail in very important. Clean the pick-ups well and try to run the car. You will get quick feedback as to where the shoes touch the track. Adjust accordingly. Be sure your rail are clean. I use an erase with an abrasive in it. Can't remember where I got it (sorry). More times than not, it's a combination of both.

There is no trick though. Either they go or they don't. LLs are pretty easy on the maint., BUT tricky to get good contact on the rails.

Good luck...

Paint the contact patch on the bottom of the shoes with a dark colored Sharpie. Run the car on the track for several laps. Then check the wear pattern on the shoes. This will tell you whether you have any high or low spots on your shoes. Adjust shoes, re-mark them, and retest as necessary until you get a nice line that extends the length of the contact patch. I adjust shoes with a small needle nose pliers. When I bend shoes I tend to use the pliers to hold the shoe and use my finger to coerce the shoe. This technique seems to be far less likely to kink the shoe than doing it the other way, i.e., holding the shoe with my fingers and bending the shoe with pliers.

Life-Like track has a taller rail height than Tomy and the T-chassis dosen't play well with the lower rail height. I have some chassis that work better than others and playing with the pick-ups dosen't do the trick on the bad ones. There's also significantly less downforce with the Tomy track. Smaller tires all around will lower the ride height and take car of both problems. Though I must admit that I haven't tried it myself. I just dont like running them enough to make the investment in replacement skins.

Sand Your Front Tires Down Some. It Should Help. Try Running Your Car Without Front Tires And You'll See What I Mean.
Gary

Thanks everybody I have got one right so far.Good tips THANKS

One thing I've done to correct pick-up shoes that don't hang down far enough is to take the body off the car, set it on a piece of straight track of the type you are running on, look at the opening which is the slot where the pick up shoe goes over the nipple or holder in front. Grab the front rims between yor thumb and finger on both sides, lift the front end and see if the nipple has to move up to hit the top of the shoe inside the slot. If there is no travel there you need to rebend the front straight part of the shoe so that it hangs down far enough to touch the rails. Once you correct this, the cars come alive. It isn't a problem on most cars, especially the new red wire cars seem to have better quality control in this area.

You need to take the pick up shoes off and bend the small copper tab under them at a 45 degree angle, then replace pick up shoes. You need good contact , spring pressure at that point. If contact is poor there, car will sputter.