Fixing scale electric racing cars

This is in dedication to my wife, may she be able to pursue her quest for knowledge to 120. Since she mentioned there isn't much on this topic I decided to write this up since it worked so well.

Photo above shows the method to lift the brushes 'clip' in the bottom of the car using a small flat screwdriver (also shows the fixed clip). See the album of photos of the fix

Whilst this is a generic fix for scale electric cars, we use Carrera racing cars which are not allowed to be changed or manipulated by third parties intended for sale. Since this is only a hack which we found works better than the original, it's not considered a commercial enhancement.

Since I was a kid we always suffered the loss of the brushes under the electric car, this deems the car ineffective and retired. It's often time consuming and complex to find replacement brushes and they're usually quite expensive. In this experience it took no longer than 12 minutes and all the cars were working better than the original.

All you need is some old electrical copper wire (usually called electrical flex) which you can cut off any old appliance destined for the dump. A blade or stripper gets to the wires inside, try keep the individual wires twisted flat. They are very fine so be careful they don't spike you or the kids.

Scale Electric racing cars - fixBe careful not to break the metal clips that hold these brushes. You can wedge them off the car with a small flat screwdriver (see photo on top). Then wrap them around the side that has the missing brush (or both sides). Then twist them so they appear as flat as possible (i.e. do not try twist round and round, flatter is better). They should have a little 'springiness' to them.

You may need to use a flat nose pliers to flatten the tips of the clip which holds the brushes, in order to clip them back into the car.

Try it out on the track, if it's not 100% check all metal connections are being made (ie all metal parts are touching where they need to).