So....., you’ve decided that you want to try your hand at racing an HO car with the guys, but you have A) a limited budget and B) no experience.

You could have someone else build the car for you, but it wouldn’t feel right if you ever did well, because it was just someone else’s car.
What if I told you that you could build a car yourself, a competent, competitive Super Stock car without spending a lot of money, and that it would be fairly easy?

I will show how, in easy, simple to follow step by step instructions, you can build your own car, and be competitive (as long as you can drive...I can’t help you with that).

Based on generally accepted rules and regulations (yours may be different), along with some “expert” advice on what to look for to get the most from off-the-shelf parts, we will build a legal Tyco (err..um..uh.. Mattel) 440X2 super stock race car. In future articles, we will do the same with Tomys and Life-Likes.

Step one is, of course, to get a car or a chassis. You can do this a number of ways, any one of which is acceptable, but some may be better than others.

• 1) You could just go buy a brand new, complete 440X2 with a pretty body. This will get you mixed results. Firstly, you might not get the “right” chassis, which I will explain later. Secondly, a lot of the parts on a shelf car will not be used in a super stocker (such as that pretty body), and you may find this to end up being an additional expense not needed. 
• 2) You could buy a “roller” - a chassis only with an arm, magnets, stock axles and tires and such. Again, this is extra money spent on parts not used, but at least you can pick the “right” chassis. 
• 3) Or you could buy a “prepped” chassis from one of the many “builders” out there. This type of chassis comes without a motor or magnets or axles. It is just a chassis, but it will have the front shoe hangers pinned (to guard against breakage) and will have pin tubes properly mounted for attaching a Lexan body. This will also allow you to acquire the “proper” front and rear bulkheads. 

OK, what is this guy talking about, the “right” chassis and the “proper” bulkheads?

Over the years, Tyco has produced many variants of the typical 440-X2 slot car. The chassis all look similar, but there have been slight differences in the molds, which creates subtle changes to the handling and speed characteristics of the car. The most common type out there now is a “pan” chassis, which you DO NOT want. These are most of the NASCAR type bodies, and are easily spotted by the dark black color, and the wide, black pans spread out on each side underneath the car. The more common chassis for racing purposes is the narrow type, gray chassis. These are mounted under most of the late model Corvette bodies and the Lamborghini bodies, to name but a few.

Here is where it gets real interesting! Among the narrow chassis made over the years, you will find different series that you need to look for! The Malaysia chassis is out there, with 1 or 2 dots imprinted on the bottom back edge. Some also have no dots.

The other type of chassis, which is used by most racers, is the Hong Kong chassis. These are numbered Hong Kong 3 and Hong Kong 4, and you will find this number directly behind the right front wheel, on the side of the chassis. If it just has Hong Kong printed up high on the side of the chassis, it’s not the same.

Confused? Wait, there’s more! The bulkheads are even MORE important than the chassis!

First, the front bulkhead. Look on the front of the bulkhead, directly above the endbell portion where the armature comes through. Up there you will see one of the following: nothing (toss it), 3 little dots (toss it), 4 little dots (if you must use this go ahead), or a large check mark.

      This is the one, the bomb, the big cahuna, you get the picture. This is so important, because this is the one that is properly aligned to allow the arm to turn freely and this bulkhead also allows you to run lower front tires, not to mention the fact that it allows the motor magnets to sit lower in the chassis!

Second, the rear bulkhead. Same scenario, different spot. Look at the very bottom on the back end of the rear bulkhead for the following: 3 dots (use this with a Hong Kong 4 chassis), 4 dots (a Hong Kong 3 chassis) or nothing (use this with a Malaysia 2 dot).

You can experiment with other combinations, but I find that these combos typically pay off. What you are looking for, again, is proper alignment and getting the magnets as low as possible (in this case the traction magnets). This is serious stuff, boys and girls! The proper choice of bulkhead and chassis can make or break a good race car from the start.

Next step is to “pin” the car, if you bought a bare chassis. This is tedious and time consuming, but if you don’t do it, you could wind up losing a race because of an off, by breaking one of the tabs that hold the pick-up shoe on the car (read: no-go).

You should practice this next step on a pile chassis before you go drilling holes in your prized possession!

Get yourself a pin vise and number drill bits.

These are found at just about any hardware or hobby store for less than $10. Also, get some .020 piano wire (.25 cents) and, using a #23 bit, carefully align the drill to the end of one shoe hanger. Find the very center, and begin to drill slowly into the tip of the hanger.

It's very important that you turn the chassis different angles, so that you maintain a straight attack into the hanger! Do not go too fast, as consistency and alignment is what you are looking for. Continue to drill into the hanger till you are actually drilling into the chassis, about 1/4 inch. 

After smoothing one end of the piano wire, dab a little super glue on the end of the wire and stick this end into the drilled hole until it bottoms out into the chassis. At this point, break the remaining wire off with dikes, and use a Dremel or similar device to bring the edge smooth and flush with the end of the hanger. Do the other side the same way and you now have a “bulletproof” front end.

Next, you will want to attach the pin tubes for mounting your Lexan body. If you plan on racing multiple cars, and you don’t want to have a separate body for each car, you might want to find someone that has a chassis “jig” for drilling these holes in the same spot on each chassis. Otherwise, proceed on, maestro.

Pick your spot. The tubes on this chassis are about as far apart as you can put them on a Tyco, this helps to keep the body from rocking. Using a #62 bit, drill carefully and slowly into the points you have picked for the tubes. 

Pay close attention to the mounting of the front, so it will not be in conflict with the brush tubes or pick-up shoes on the inside of the chassis!

Buy, beg, borrow (but don’t steal) a set of THREADED aluminum body tubes. Don’t use the flanged kind, as they just will not stay in the hole, no matter what kind of gorilla snot glue you try. Thread these in by using your pin vise (not too tight around the aluminum, as it will bend) until they seat nicely and flush with the inside of the chassis. If you did it correctly it should look kinda like this

Now on to the "Go" stuff! You must have POWER (har, har). Many guys out there sell “hand picked” armatures. Some of these are really good, and some are not. So what I do is to buy a bunch of cheap arms and go through them until I find one that is balanced (naturally, of course - anything else would be cheating).

How do you find a balanced arm? One way is to take a couple of double edge razor blades and mount them into a firm piece of flat plastic or wood. Make sure that both edges are parallel and the same distance apart. Set your new arm on the two edges and see if it rolls freely, or begins to want to come to rest, always at the same spot. If this happens, you might as well throw it away, as balancing an armature in any way is usually illegal. Continue until you find an armature that has the best roll to it. This will be your race motor. If you want to be real scientific about it, you can also OHM the armature (or see Slot Car Enthusiast vol. 1). This can give you a reading, based on resistance, of how well the armature will perform, if balanced. This is relative, as a lower number means less resistance i.e. better rpm, but could also mean that the arm will never reach it’s optimum rpm and will therefore feel sluggish. Putting a very tall gear on the car (7/23 or even 7/24) helps but this can be an actual disadvantage if your car tends to be set up to run low, because the taller gears can physically touch the track (not a good thing!).

Now that you have found the “perfect” armature, you really need “perfect” magnets. The ones that came with that 440X2 you bought back in 1988 probably won’t be very effective, as magnets lose strength from many factors, including heat, use, dropping, etc. It is best if you buy a matched set from someone. This just means that some smart lug-nut gear head with a degree and a gauss meter has checked the power of the magnets (motors and tractions) to find a set with the highest gauss reading. This can also be attained by having the magnets zapped by that self same lug-nut. Zapping of magnets (if it is even allowed in your racing circle) is a good way to bring power back to used magnets, but they can never be zapped to a power greater than their original state, and usually won’t ever get completely back to their highest rating.

The motor magnets should be mounted in the reverse of a stock 440-X2, with the white topped magnet on the right side (top) of the car. The only confirmed reason I know of that this is usually done, is so you can run the same axle set on all your Tycos and Tomys, although some claim that they run better that direction (impossible, because there is 0 degrees of advance on a Tyco stock arm).

You will need the following items to complete the building of the motor portion of your super stocker:

• Stock brush barrels 
• Stock brushes 
• Hardened or heat treated .006 brush springs (On-Tracks work nice) 
• Double coil pick-up shoe springs 
• Extended flat pick-up shoes 
• Phenolic or nylon arm spacers 

Begin by inserting one nylon spacer on the commutator end of the armature, than inserting this end into the front bulkhead (it won’t run the other way!) Slip your motor magnets into the holders on the bulkhead and insert another spacer onto the rear of the shaft. Now insert the rear bulkhead onto the armature shaft. Holding the assembly so it is tight and square, push the armature back and forth to see if there is a lot of slop. If there is, put another spacer on the rear of the arm and try again. If it feels too tight, remove the spacer you put on originally, and try to find a thinner one. Once you get it right (enough movement that you can feel it but not see it) you are ready to put the brush assemblies onto the front bulkhead.

Begin by taking one of the brushes and rolling it with your finger on a flat piece of white writing paper. This removes any oxidization from the brush and helps contact and movement inside the brush barrel. Take one of the brush springs and insert it into the barrel, followed by the flat end of the brush. Be careful here that the brush stays in the barrel and doesn’t pop back out and land in your wife's coffee cup. Gingerly tip the brush end of the barrel into the hole on the side of the bulkhead (with the armature still in place or a brush radius tool) and push it in until it is snug as a bug. Now do the other side. If you wish to use a brush radius tool (see Slot Car Enthusiast vol. 2) go ahead, otherwise, you can also break in a stock armature with low power for about 15 or 20 minutes. Now that you have both sets of brushes in place, attach the pick-up shoe springs to the bulkhead.

Here is the trickiest part by far about putting together a Tyco slot car. You need to take the entire assembly you just built and pop it into the chassis, arm, magnets, brushes, barrels and shoe springs, the whole darned thing. It can be very frustrating (especially if you try to do it from the top, read: impossible). Turn the chassis over and set the entire assembly on top of it. Watching the shoe springs, begin to spread the chassis apart slightly to accept the front bulkhead first, than the back. Once you get the bottom tabs of both bulkheads into the proper alignment, start to push the assembly down the rest of the way, again keeping a keen eye on the end wires of those shoe springs, as they can be easily jammed and bent. Keep trying until everything locks in place, then gently pry the back section just enough on one side to get the traction magnet through the hole and pop it into place.

By the way, the traction magnets are reversible and you should put the one that opposes the motor magnet on that same side of the car. This helps to get the best field of down force around the car (no......really.....I’m not making this stuff up).

Now you have just to insert the pick-up shoes into the springs and snap them over your pinned hangers and you should be able to try it to see if it at least runs!

Try not to give a bunch a throttle all at once until you have broken the commutator in. And you really should oil it first!

Next you need a pinion, a stock one will do. A hardened steel axle works great, but you can get away with a stock one for now. Mount some good silicones (your choice) and a 20, 21 or 22 tooth spur gear (depending on the car, the track and your driving style) and snap the axle in place. You may want one thin spacer between the gear and the chassis, depending on the brand of gear you prefer to run.

For the front, if your club allows, you should get yourself a good set of independent front wheels and narrow, slip on front tires. These have better rolling resistance than stock tires and allow you to change tire height at will.

Your next step is to run the car around a track, checking for how the shoes are contacting the rail surface and how much spring pressure you have to adjust out, and how well the car runs and handles, which will indicate whether you need to go up (you can hear the car scraping the track and it seems to “skate” out of the slot) or down (the car just sails out of the slot).

The rest is up to you, but you should now have a car that is more than capable on the track, depending mostly on set-up and driving style. Thanks to the people at http://www.raceaslot.com for this info.