TPP Project

by Wendell Jones

 

There was a time when building a Tyco was very commonplace. Now that the market has evolved and new and better equipment has now taken its rightful place in the market, the Tyco finds itself a part of the Mattel Corporation an out in the pasture. It's still possible to build a decent running Tyco though. What we are going to attempt is to build a TPP Tyco adaptation of the Tyco narrow Chassis "HK" that I personally used to successfully compete against the mighty SG+ that was the dominate chassis of that period of time.

First we need to assemble some of the parts we will need for this project. First we need to get hold of some original Tyco HK chassis...

As you can tell by the picture, the small HK stamped on the chassis behind the passenger side front tire identifies the chassis. What makes this chassis different from others that you may see stamped China or Malaysia is that a different mold was used at each location and had subtle differences like where the hole for the axles were drilled in relation to the bottom of the chassis. We found that the best chassis for use on Tomy based track was the HK. Next we need a decent armature. I'm not crazy about the offerings from Mattel, so let’s look to companies like Lucky Bob to get a Hot Stock Armature for us.

Above are four examples of Tyco style armatures (From L-R) Balance and trued arm from Wizzard, a balance and trued arm from Team On Slot called the “Silverback”, A “Wide Gap” and a standard stock arm from American Line. The difference between a stock are and a “Hot” stock armature is the fact the commutator or comm. for short (The copper jacket at the top of the armature) has been re-cut or “Trued” to ensure that it’s in the round. Doing that reduces what is known as brush bounce and allows your arm to break in faster and maintain better contact with the brushes. The two dots and the slice you see on the first two armatures are examples of different forms of balancing. Basically each lam (where the cuts are) has material remove from areas to make sure that all three sides weigh the same. That way when the arm spins in the car the arm will not wobble, thus hampering the rotational speed of the armature. The same reason you get your real car tires balanced to prolong tread life and roll smooth at speed.
The “Wide Gap” armature (Purple) was once plentiful, but now is hard to find. They would show up once in a while in stock Tyco’s, the smaller lam allowed them to generate more torque than the standard stock arm.

One of the most important parts of the Tyco are the bulkheads, they hold the armature, brushes, brush tubes and the motor magnets in place in the chassis. All over the net you will find stories about how to read the “Dots” that you see stamped on the backside of the bulkheads. They are supposed to tell you what chassis the bulkheads work best in. I never paid attention to that because I ran was is known as “Bushings” in the bulkheads of my cars. One of the reasons that SG+/G3 cars are fast is because they took steps to reduce the reduce friction in their initial designs by adding bushings so the armature would spin truer. Tyco’s did not add this feature to their chassis and that put them at a serious disadvantage to the SG+ car. Thanks to the aftermarket world you can correct this problem.

Bushings serve two major functions, one is the reduce friction and by reducing friction you allow the armature to spin freer and with less heat thus extending the lifespan of your armature.

As you can tell by the picture above the bushing keeps the armature shaft from rubbing against the plastic. To maximize the use of bushings there is a set up technique called “Shimming” that basically isolates the armature and keeps it from bouncing into the bulkheads; we will get into later when we start talking about set up tweaks.

Next up is the electrical system, where the power goes from the track to your car and back to the track and that’s done with 5 different components, the Pickup shoe, the pick spring, the brushes, brush spring and the brush tubes.

Pickup shoes on any car are is very important. This is where all the good juice is transferred from the track to your hungry armature. The stock 440 X 2 pickup shoe left a lot to be desired especially for racing. So we were allowed to use stock replacement Ski type shoes. They themselves caused a bigger problem, you see the stem the came up to meet the brush tube was so narrow that the shoe would lean to one side and not make proper contact with the rails. We were not allowed back then to use double pick up springs so I solved the problem by going retro. You see the original 440 Tyco used a ski type pick up shoe that you had to physically bend to get the right shape. But the stem was wide and thick and would not allow the shoe to lean to the side at all and since I was using original Tyco components my shoes were legal. Today we will use the newer skinny neck ski pickup shoes but we will order the Patriot 9 gauge double pickup shoe springs that will solve the lean problem for our project.

The picture below shows the difference from today’s pickup shoe compared to the original 440 pickup shoe I used.

As I stated above the way we are going to resolve the current problem with the skinny neck pickup shoes is to use the Wizzard Patriot double pickup shoe spring that works very well in a Tyco. (See below)

After your power passes the pickup shoes and springs it then goes to the brush tubes. The brush tubes house the brushes and the brush springs. The original Tyco brushes and stock brush springs were ok for tooling around at home but for competition they were terrible. The brushes themselves had a low content of copper and the brush spring if stretched to add more tension would shrink back to normal size due to the heat that was generated inside the brush tube. Once again aftermarket suppliers come to the rescue and create brush springs in different gauges (better tension) and high temperature to better handle the heat and thus would not shrink. Besides stock brushes you could also get 80% copper and silver. A Silver brush compared to a stock brush below.

You could always tell a stock brush by the little nipple at on end. I like silver because they have a tendency to pass electricity a tad faster than copper. Now the stock brush tubes were fine for just tooling around at home, but for competition they were terrible. The net is full of stories of those who found ways to get around the lack of adjustability. What I did was basically cheat by using two springs. One spring I cut in half and modified it so it would never come out of the tube and then I stacked a complete one on top of it. Thankfully I never got caught especially during post race breakdowns. But for our project we are going to use adjustable brush tubes. To use this will require us to modify or chassis slightly by drilling holes in the chassis so you can have access to the brush tube Allen screw.

Above you see a stock Tyco brush tube compared to an adjustable one and the set screw and Allen wrench needed to make adjustments. Learning how to adjust your brushes allows you to maximize your cars performance. We will get to that when we start assembling all the pieces together. Getting ahead of ourselves just for a second, here are some pictures of what a chassis looks like with adjustable brush tubes.

Chassis before	Chassis afterward
Tubes installed	Top View

For some of you this technique may be a little exotic. If you have the skill and know how you can do this at home, if not you can send the chassis out to be drilled by manufactures like Wizzard. The third option is to by pass this option and stick with the stock tubes.

Now most of you have seen Tyco motor magnets, here is a case where I will actually say go ahead and use the new ones you got with the Mattel offerings, but if you happen to have a few sets of the original Tyco types by all means use them. In the future you might want to consider sending them out to be re-zapped for better performance.

Now we come to the traction magnets. The original traction magnets had as much grip as a piece of paper in high winds. They were the same polarity and just useless. One again the aftermarket companies come to the rescue. To be on par with the SG+ our group agreed to allow the Tyco and the SG+ to run BSRT Phase 2 traction magnets. Well times have changed and for this project we are going to make a major improvement from when I was racing my Tyco. Available from BSRT are a set of the new Bonded in g6 ceramic and g13 full polymer strengths. I have ordered a set for this project (g13), for $6.00 a pair that’s not going to kill the budget. As soon as they come in I will add a picture.

The last items to discuss are the tires, gears and the guide pin. Let’s face it there was no way I could use those hard stock tires and be competitive, but I do have a story to tell you.

When I first started learning about Tyco’s I only knew about Pan chassis types, and one day at a race I blew up the SG+ I wanted to run, the only car I have left was a brand new Tyco Black Dodge Stealth that I had just bought the day before. I loved the way it looked. It had the grey rimmed huge foam tires in the rear, but I had to run so I put it on the track and hoped for the best. The track was very short and had a hill climb. Believe me when I tell you that car ran and I placed 4th for the race. A lot of people took notice that day to a point that one guy actually bought a yellow Dodge Stealth and put it in his box.
Our league only runs slip on tires. The tires of choice back then were AJ’s on the AJ’s double flange rims for Tyco axles. I think I ran 450 in the rear, but found an interesting combination for the front tires. I could not find a independent front end at the time that worked right for the pan chassis I was using, but I wondered what would happen if I took the tiny tires that I had on my new Tyco Indy car and stretch them over the stock front rims on my Stealth? What I had found was the perfect front tire height for the pan chassis on Tomy based tracks. Ironically I never measured the actual tire. But I also noticed something else; the chassis on my Indy car was not a Pan chassis and seemed to sit a whole lot lower.

Enough about my history, for this project we will be using Super Tires and start off with a .448/450 rear just to make sure that the new bonded traction magnets have room to breath. In the past with Phase 2 traction magnets I ran .442/.446 in the rear depending on the track and .355 in the front. The double flange hubs I normally use comes from a manufacture called JW’s. They most likely to be .250 OD (Overall Diameter) at the end of this project I will list the parts and the manufacture I got them from. I’m also going to order an Aluminum front end. Hey I still have a set of the old AJ’s that I kept around, let’s use them for the project.

That brings us to the topic of rear axles; it’s been a known fact that skilled technicians can add a lot more horse power to his car by choosing a rear gear and axle combo for a particular track. For years racers have been using Tyco axles in SG/G3 chassis to free up the rear end. G+ axles until recently were .063 in diameter as you can see by the package above that Tyco’s axles are considerably smaller. Question is can the same be done for a Tyco chassis and the answer is yes. There are aftermarket companies like JW’s that make custom axles. For my Slottech T1’s I use a JW Titanium rear axle or I will use a Life Like rear axle, here’s why:

Tyco, Life Like and JW’s Titanium axles...

Tyco Axle .059

Life Like Axle .058

As you can see the Life Like axle is a tad smaller than the Tyco and can be used safely and stay secured through a race. One of the main things to remember about a LL axle that you must make sure that the hubs and gear MUST be equally centered in relation the chassis. Also check to make sure your rear axle is not bent. Just a little wobble can cost you serious time per lap during a race and hamper cars traction capabilities. And before I forget check out the JW axle below.

JW’s Titanium 0.58

Before we close this section, we need to take a look at guide pins. The Tyco guide pin is not as large and as sturdy as other manufactures but it’s still effective. You can get an aftermarket guide pin that’s longer and stronger than stock. Although a longer guide pin can help you, a pin too long can cause you problems like grabbing debris that’s at the bottom of the groove. One too short will easily de-slot on a track.

Stock, extended length stock and an adjustable length

 

Let’s take on more look and see how the different lengths look mounted on a chassis.

Stock on the left, extended stock on the right

 

Now that we have token a quick look at everything it’s time that we start putting the pieces together and then applying some easy tweaks.

Before I go I like to rehash on a statement that I made on document 1about the stock bulkheads. Here is a tip that was posted by Slotking upstate NY:

“The 1 thing we were always told is to use the HK chassis with the 4dot rear bulk head and check mark front bulk head. These bulk heads got your magnets lower to the track.”

The next sections are where all the fun begins, we start building.....

Before we start I wanted to let you see the parts that I got in from Lucky Bob’s (Great service I might add) A set of .008 “High Temp” brush springs and the new BSRT “Bonded” G16 Traction magnets for Tyco’s...

We now need to assemble the components that we will be using to build the actual project. Brush springs and traction magnets we have, lets’ find an armature and a decent set of ceramic motor magnets. Also note that in the future if the new bonded motor magnets should come available for the Tyco, I will upgrade to a set of Pro-ceramic g6’s. The chassis would then fall into the category of a Polystock pro.
Here are my parts.

OK, we have chosen an armature for this adventure. It’s a BSRT Tyco are that’s been balanced and trued and the comm. has been tied.

Now before we go on, I’m going to test the arm by checking it’s Ohm reading to make sure she’s healthy enough for this project. OK she’s in the mid-6.6 range which is pretty good for this project. Next we are going to do a test fitting. Basically we put her together loosely to make sure everything fits well.

The picture below shows the motor compartment all together, but the brushes, brush springs and pickup shoe and springs where left off. I do this also to free spin the armature to see if the bushings are ok and to see how well the motor magnets pull the armature.

Next I will pull everything apart and start building the complete motor compartment.. Now in some cases I would polish and clean my bushing in my bulkhead, but in this case it will not be necessary. This particular set has already been broken in.

Now starting with the armature we are going to add some items to help keep the armature in the magnetic sweet spot and reduce friction at the same time. The items that you see below should always be available in your box if you are a racer.

On the left are .010 stainless steel spacers and on the right nylon spacers. They come in a variety of thicknesses and serve multiple functions in the building and overall performance of your chassis. Now what I’m doing is replacing the stock nylon spacer at the top of the armature with a new nylon one to serve as the oil blocker, and it keeps the com protected from electrical shorts. Then I put a stainless steel washer on top to help reduce rotational friction that would be generated when the nylon washer rubbed against the brass bushing in bulkhead.

Old Stock Nylon washer

New Nylon with Stainless .010 washer on top

Now we do something similar to the bottom of the armature but we have to do some on/off comparisons to make sure we get it right...follow me.......

Not all bushings are the same, some are thin and some are thick and as you can see from the picture below my set is rather thick and protrudes well into the motor box. With this in mind I need to see how much free play is left in the arm. When I say free play, your arm should have just enough play so that it rotates free in the motor box, but not so free that it wiggles a lot up and down that it leaves the magnetic sweet spot between the motor magnets. All Tyco armature come with a nylon washer at the rear in the windings, never remove that washer!

After testing all I needed was just one stainless steel washer in the rear.

Next up adding the brushes....

I left you at the beginning of adding the brushes, but before I go there I need to back track just a little. Remember when I said I always pre-fit my chassis, well here why, as I looked at how the armature sat in the motor box, I became concerned that the armature was not sitting in the middle of the box and out of the magnet sweet spot. So just to be on the safe side I changed the bulkheads to a thinner set as seen below:

The end result was this:

Now see how the armature rests in the middle of the motor magnets. The armature now has space at the top and bottom of the bulkhead. I re-shimmed and used a nylon and one stainless steel spacer at the bottom of the armature to give the perfect amount of play. A tenth of and inch up and down, should allow the arm to rotate freely. Now I know some of you are going I thought the white magnets was on the left side of the chassis and they are in a stock chassis, but remember Tyco arms are normally zero timed and can be run either direction. But if you run an arm in one direction, if you choose to run the same arm in the opposite direction have the comm. trued before you do.

I have practically installed everything except the brushes and the pickup shoes. I installed the BSRT Bonded traction magnets in the high down force position.

Now adding brushes and brush springs is a careful task, the brushes have to be installed the correct way. Look at you brushes closely whether you’re using stock or silver, the brushes have a top and a bottom. There is an end that either has a nipple or is completely flat, that’s the side that sits against the brush spring in the tube, the other end is curved or pre-arced, and that’s the end that goes against your armature.

Allow me to add this little addendum:

Some of you may have a difficult time trying to install your bulkheads because the tractions magnets keep popping loose cause they are attracted to each other, well here is a little tip to help keep them in place while you load up. Find a tire and stick it in between the traction magnets. As you push in the bulkheads, the tire will just fall out.

Ok, where was I, oh I’m using Slottech Silverhorn brush tubes; they are long and have a deep Allen screw. Once I load my brush and spring I then screw my Allen screw till it’s flushed with the end of the tube. To make sure the screw don’t back out I add just a smidgen of green locktite on the screw threads. If you turn the arm, it will be a snug fit, but once I put the car on the power supply she will wake up. Run for a bit, not long, and then add a drop of oil on both ends of the armature shafts to start the lubrication process and I mean just a drop!
After an extended break in period (I usually run my cars on a 6 volt power supply for at least 2 hours) the chassis has responded better that I have hoped. I can actually say that this one has much more initial kick than the ones I built years ago.

Next I’m going to add the rear axle and 24 tooth gearing. I’m going to use a Titanium axle for its durability. As you can in the picture below, I’ve taken the time to mount the gear in the proper spot allowing the axle to be in the center in the chassis.

I chose not to use a gear boss for this application, to limit the gear side to side slop I’ve added two stainless steel washers to the end of the gear. This provides just enough free play to keep the gear from binding up against the pinion gear.

The above picture lets you see the axle assembly installed in the chassis. Next I will install the AJ’s double flange hubs. To make this process a lot easier you should have a wheel press and puller. These tools allow you to also install the hubs straight so you will have no wobble.

Here is a picture with the hub installed on the axle assembly.

Now it would be a good idea especially if you’re going into competition to check your wheels through a tech block. The tech (shown below) makes sure your wheels do not exceed the width mandated for racing.

The tires have been added and a body chosen for this project, it’s now time to see how she runs. But before I do that I need to do a little house cleaning. First for this project I chose to use a Tomy seven tooth pinion instead of a Tyco pinion. Both mesh well with BSRT gears, but I like the way a new Tomy pinion grips the armature shaft. I also use a dab of green Locktite on the end of the armature to keep the pinion from slipping off during heavy operation I can’t stress enough about tools, either bought or created like the jig I mage below to check to see if my pickup shoes are running flat against the rail, pays off big time when you are in competition.

Well that’s about it I have a well broken in bundle of joy to do as I please on my track hope this tutorial has been helpful.

 

TPP Corvette