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HO Scale Slot Car Maintenance Tips:

Properly maintaining your HO slot car track and cars is vital to achieve maximum performance from your race set. There are many resources available on the Internet that covers this topic fully; these are just a few basic tips.

For Beginners:

When learning how to race a slot car it may be helpful to place a short length of electrical tape on one of the contact rails on the track before each turn. Be sure not to cover the slot. This will cause the car to slow down without you letting off the throttle. Experiment with the length of the tape before each turn. This is also a good way to keep the kids from launching the cars across the room.

Track Maintenance:

It’s a good idea to wipe your track off with a clean lint free cloth before racing. This is to minimize the dreaded carpet fuzz. While you wipe down your track check for corrosion on the track rails. This is especially important if the track has not been used in a while.

To properly clean corrosion from your track rails: You will need either a mildly abrasive ink eraser or a fine (600 grit) sandpaper. Lightly go over the rails to remove the corrosion then, wipe your track down with a clean lint free cloth.

Car Maintenance:

After every crash, check to make sure that the body of your car is not rubbing on the wheels and that the tires are still mounted correctly.

After every run check around all moving parts for carpet fuzz. Remove any fuzz that you find. Carpet fuzz will wrap around axles and severely affect the performance of your car.

Oil all bushings and gears on a regular basis, only one drop of light oil will due. You may use a needle-point oiler or a toothpick to apply the oil.

Most HO scale slot cars will run on AFX/Tomy track. AFX/Tomy Track only connects with other AFX/Tomy Track pieces. If you are unsure of the brand of track you have, simply turn the track over and the manufactures name should be printed on it. AFX/Tomy track will have either Aurora or Tomy or both printed on it.