clausheupel
12-27-2009, 11:21 AM
Hi folks,
hopefully everyoneīs successfully digested their X-Mas turkey! :drunk:
I just wanted to show off the results of a little, cheap and dirty Sunday afternoon quickie. Iīm quite sure Iīm not the only one who has one (or more) of those useless Tyco Jam Cars laying around wondering what to do with them.
I received mine as part of a nice transatlantic transaction a couple of years ago from one of my HT buddies :wave:. What I did back then was an instant conversion to a slotted Jam Car by simply glueing a T-Jet guidepin to her bottom. Never thought she was suitable for anything more than this due to the really slow worm gear drive, so the car didnīt see much tracktime.
Direct drive cars always fascinated me and I wanted to build one for years, but never thought Iīd be able to get my hands on one of these long-shaft engines needed for that project. Now when inspecting that weird yellow monster once again I realised she had all that was needed!!! :rolleyes:
So off I went with the cutting wheel in my Dremel and removed the rear axle bearings as well as the rear engine mount. Pressing the motor shaft through the comm assembly was easily done with a few gentle strokes of a hammer and the use fo my trusty old vise. Then I CA-glued the original wheels onto the now centered motor shaft and had a perfect direct drive unit!
For mounting that drive unit to the chassis I simply took a piece of sheet aluminium and bent it to an L-shape. A little CA-superglue, 2 wires and she was ready for some quite promising test laps.
Funny thing is that these Jam Car chassis already have a built-in U-turn diode wiring - you can run them either direction on your track!
So I didnīt mount slip-on silicones, but some lead weight to prevent the car front from hopping out of the slot all the time - works great!
Then I finally felt the need to add some LED lights, too:
Laying around 1.8 mm white LEDīs as front lights seemed just fine, so I installed 4 of them. Unfortunately 1 didnīt work (should have tested them before adding that drop of CA glue...), so I soldered a bypass to the other side ending up with only 2 working headlights instead of 3. Then I mounted 2 of those cool red/blue blinking LEDīs as roof lights (drilling 3 mm holes into the original red plastic dummies worked fine!) and a little capacitor for smoothing out the current.
The result looks like that:
http://www.aus-dem-rahmen-gefallen.de/slotcars/ch_tyco_jamcar_2_u-turn_01.jpg
http://www.aus-dem-rahmen-gefallen.de/slotcars/ch_tyco_jamcar_2_u-turn_02.jpg
http://www.aus-dem-rahmen-gefallen.de/slotcars/ch_tyco_jamcar_2_u-turn_03.jpg
http://www.aus-dem-rahmen-gefallen.de/slotcars/ch_tyco_jamcar_2_u-turn_04.jpg
Still a butt ugly car (just like the other U-turn Mustangs I have), but kind of funny on the track - just take a look at this short video clip I just did with my son as the camera guy:
http://www.aus-dem-rahmen-gefallen.de/slotcars/ch_tyco_jamcar_2_u-turn.mpg
Back to the track now - itīs getting dark outside, so itīs about time for a U-turn car duel!:)
Greetings from Germany,
Claus
hopefully everyoneīs successfully digested their X-Mas turkey! :drunk:
I just wanted to show off the results of a little, cheap and dirty Sunday afternoon quickie. Iīm quite sure Iīm not the only one who has one (or more) of those useless Tyco Jam Cars laying around wondering what to do with them.
I received mine as part of a nice transatlantic transaction a couple of years ago from one of my HT buddies :wave:. What I did back then was an instant conversion to a slotted Jam Car by simply glueing a T-Jet guidepin to her bottom. Never thought she was suitable for anything more than this due to the really slow worm gear drive, so the car didnīt see much tracktime.
Direct drive cars always fascinated me and I wanted to build one for years, but never thought Iīd be able to get my hands on one of these long-shaft engines needed for that project. Now when inspecting that weird yellow monster once again I realised she had all that was needed!!! :rolleyes:
So off I went with the cutting wheel in my Dremel and removed the rear axle bearings as well as the rear engine mount. Pressing the motor shaft through the comm assembly was easily done with a few gentle strokes of a hammer and the use fo my trusty old vise. Then I CA-glued the original wheels onto the now centered motor shaft and had a perfect direct drive unit!
For mounting that drive unit to the chassis I simply took a piece of sheet aluminium and bent it to an L-shape. A little CA-superglue, 2 wires and she was ready for some quite promising test laps.
Funny thing is that these Jam Car chassis already have a built-in U-turn diode wiring - you can run them either direction on your track!
So I didnīt mount slip-on silicones, but some lead weight to prevent the car front from hopping out of the slot all the time - works great!
Then I finally felt the need to add some LED lights, too:
Laying around 1.8 mm white LEDīs as front lights seemed just fine, so I installed 4 of them. Unfortunately 1 didnīt work (should have tested them before adding that drop of CA glue...), so I soldered a bypass to the other side ending up with only 2 working headlights instead of 3. Then I mounted 2 of those cool red/blue blinking LEDīs as roof lights (drilling 3 mm holes into the original red plastic dummies worked fine!) and a little capacitor for smoothing out the current.
The result looks like that:
http://www.aus-dem-rahmen-gefallen.de/slotcars/ch_tyco_jamcar_2_u-turn_01.jpg
http://www.aus-dem-rahmen-gefallen.de/slotcars/ch_tyco_jamcar_2_u-turn_02.jpg
http://www.aus-dem-rahmen-gefallen.de/slotcars/ch_tyco_jamcar_2_u-turn_03.jpg
http://www.aus-dem-rahmen-gefallen.de/slotcars/ch_tyco_jamcar_2_u-turn_04.jpg
Still a butt ugly car (just like the other U-turn Mustangs I have), but kind of funny on the track - just take a look at this short video clip I just did with my son as the camera guy:
http://www.aus-dem-rahmen-gefallen.de/slotcars/ch_tyco_jamcar_2_u-turn.mpg
Back to the track now - itīs getting dark outside, so itīs about time for a U-turn car duel!:)
Greetings from Germany,
Claus