Expert Advice - Maintenance

Motor Care

For a fast and long lasting motor, you must know how to properly maintain it. First of all, get a small screwdriver, sandpaper, modeling knife, a cup of either engine oil or kerosene, and grease that came with the car that you bought. It's thick grease, and works good for the motor. If you don't know how to open up a motor, here's how. On either side of the motor near the electric brushes (small metal plates at the top of the motor), you'll notice two tiny pieces of metal coming from the body of the motor (the can) that holds on to the top of the motor. Using a screwdriver, pull these two pieces up. Now you should be able to pull the motor apart. Now follow these steps:

1. First put the seperate pieces of the motor into the engine oil/gasoline for around ten minutes.
2. Remove the pieces from the oil and let it dry itself on a layer of tissues.
3. Put a little bit grease at the tip of the electric brushes.
4. On the commutator, you'll see thin lines of space. The commutator is the tube-like object that the electric brushes touch. It is located at the top of the armature, or rotor. With your modeling knife, gently scrape the lines of space to get some dirt out.
5. As time goes by, the copper plates on the commutator gets worn out as a chemical reaction is created when it's exposed to oxygen in the air, therefore creating a lot of electric resistance. The more the resistance, the slower your motor would be. Using the sandpaper, scrub the commutator in order to remove the oxidation.
6. Complete these steps by putting some of that thick grease on the commutator, and some more on the other end of the armature.

Now all you have to do is put the motor back together just like how you took it apart. If you put it back wrong and your car starts running backwards, simply open your motor back up and rotate the top of the motor (the part with the electric brushes) 180 degrees. The above steps should be done regularly. If you do all this, the life of your motor will be much longer, and will perform much better.

Oiling

The main thing about maintaining your Mini 4wd is oiling it. Without any oils or grease, a car's parts wear out quicker, and the speed gets cut in half. So where do you put oils? Remember, you put oils wherever friction could exist. What type of oil? You can use sewing machine oil, engine oil, or even baby oil.

Let's start this oiling process by oiling the ball bearings. Wherever there are ball bearings, whether it's in a gear set or inside your motor, you must add oil. Without oil, ball bearings doesn't help you much.

Next, add oil to any kind of gear, whether it's the pinion or the gears on the propellar shaft. Remember, don't add too much oil, as it attracts a lot of dirt, and not too less either. You'll also notice little areas where the propellar shaft can possible touch the chassis. Those areas must be oiled as well.

Finally, oil the insides of the rollers, whether it's a ball bearing roller or just a plain old roller.

That's all there is to oiling your car. As I've said already, oiling greatly improves the performance of your car.

Tire Cleaning

A dirty tire doesn't run as well, and also doesn't look as well. Currently in the world, there are two types of tires: rubber and sponge. To clean a sponge tire, use scotch tape. For a rubber tire, take an eraser and gently scrape the rubber. Be sure not to scrape off too much, or your tire will be ruined. That's all there is to tire cleaning.

And that's also all there is to maintaning your Mini 4wd. Remember to do these things often. Doing this is fun, and most importantly, keeps your car running smooth.