Hello I am looking for advise for tuning my Corvette. I have one major problem with it I would like advise on.

First the major problem is either the rear tires are balloning or the rear axle is fluttering and causing the rear to jump up and down on the circut in a straight line. Turns are rather slow as the pogo action in the rear will throw it out of the slot at high speeds.
Should i just replace the rear wheels and tires with something better? If i do this do i need to rear place anything else?

This is my only current slot car and i run it here for fun.
http://www.slotcars.jp/circuit.html

Any advise is welcome.
Thanks

Rear wheel hop on a 1/32 car can mean various things. Your axle could not be true....your wheels could not be perfectly round, your tires could not be perfectly round....or the compound of the tires are not correct for this track.

My suggestion to you is to begin with simple stuff. Remove the rear tires and look at the wheels. Check for things like leftover plastic flashing that can be trimmed away, especially on the surface of the wheel where the tire makes contact. You want to smooth the wheel out - no excess plastic flashing and any place where there are "seams" from the molding of the wheel, if they are on a surface that makes contact with the tire and the tire with the track, make sure they are smoothed down by using some fine grit sand paper. Once you have the wheels done, replace the tires and drive the car and see if that removed the wheel hop - take it one step at a time vs. changing a whole bunch of stuff at once.

If the wheel hop is still there, my next recommendation would be to "true" the tires. Start by examining the inside and outside of the tire. Again, look for excessing rubber molding flashing that may be sticking out, especially on the inside. If the excessing rubber flashing from the tires being molded are on the inside this makes the tire act like it is continuously going over a speed bump at a rate of 18k rpm (typical speed of these motors) - that will definitely cause some wheel hopping. Once you have the rubber trimmed away, put the tires back on and again, drive the car and see if this removes whatever remaining wheel hop is left. If this still does not elliminate it, the next part of the truing the tire is to work on the "roundness" of the tire. The best way to do this is to get some sand paper, a dremel or drill motor, and if you can get another axle, that would be great. The idea is to pull the wheel off of your car's rear axle, place it on the spare axle and then "chuck" the axle, wheel and tire into the Dremel or drill motor. Next you lay the sand paper flat and hold it with one hand on a hard, flat surface. Turn the Dremel or drill motor on and then position the spinning tire so that it is as flat and level on the sand paper that you are holding. Do not apply a lot of pressure - you are sanding and truing the tire to remove the "bumps" or out of round parts of the tire. Do this for short periods of time - maybe 30 seconds at most and then check your wheels and tires. The check is done by putting the wheel and tire back on your car's rear axle and then place it on a piece of plastic straight track or, if you have one, a slot car setup block - the setup block is usually a plastic or stone small piece of 3/4" block that has a slot cut down the middle of it long ways. You place the car at one end of the block or piece of track and push it forward across it. While you are doing this, bring the block or piece of track up to your eye level and begin looking at and paying attention to the rear tires. What you are looking for is whether or not the tires are making contact across the entire rear tire surface with the block or track piece surface. If any part is not, remove the wheel and tire, put it back on the "chucked" axle on the Dremel or drill motor and begin sanding it again until you get the tire in round. Once you think you have the tires round, place the car back on the track and test.

Another big recommendation with the tires is to glue your tires to your wheels. Sometimes tires slip while on the wheels and can create the wheel hop. I'd recommend using some glue compound that would allow you to remove the tires from the wheel....maybe a rubber compound or potentially even CA. Gluing a tire can definitely help out a lot.

If the car is still hopping around after doing all of the above, my next recommendation is to check with the local racers at the track and ask them what tires they are using on their cars to run on the track - some track surfaces having varying grip and that track may need a specific tire to run any car correctly.

If having replaced the tires you are still experiencing wheel hop, I think the final thing would be the axle and potentially replace it and its components. Slot.it makes some great universal replacement parts for 1/32 slot cars. Before doing that though, check the axle carriers - what the axle goes through and rides on in the rear assembly. Some times those bearings or carriers have a lot of play or movement and can also cause a car to hop. There are some tricks to fixing it, but I'd just recommend trying to super glue those carriers onto the chassis if they are moving a lot.

I know that is a lot of information, but start with the basics and test each change you make until you get the desired result. If you have any questions or are not sure about one of the things above, feel free to ask and I'll be more than happy to help further.

Have fun!
PD2:thumbsup:

Thanks for the advise.

Took the car apart and sure enough the wheels were shaped like patatoes and the bushing the hold the rear axle are loose. So a bit of sanding and little bit of glue and she should be fixed up. I will give it a shot next time and if that doesnt work I might just replace the rear axle bits with some Slot it parts.
Thanks again:)

Thanks for the advise.

Took the car apart and sure enough the wheels were shaped like patatoes and the bushing the hold the rear axle are loose. So a bit of sanding and little bit of glue and she should be fixed up. I will give it a shot next time and if that doesnt work I might just replace the rear axle bits with some Slot it parts.
Thanks again:)

You are very welcome! Everytime I purchase a car I usually remove the magnet (because I run non-magnet more than magnet-in) and then run the car to see how they handle on the track that I'm running them on. From there I begin making these adjustments to "tune" the car to the track. Some cars are fine the way they arrive - others take some time. I personally believe that ANY slot car can be made to run a lot more smoothly if people take the time to do things like this. We have to remember that these cars come out of a factory that is "punching" these out in bulk. If they were hand built then some of the imperfections would be few to non-existant, provided the manufacturer had a good QA department. HA!

Glad the info I supplied was able to head you down the right road. Definitely let us know how the car ran after the changes you made.

Have lots of fun!
PD2:thumbsup: