More Gulf Work

I just spent some time trimming back the chassis where the spur gear was rubbing. I couldn't set the Gulf Ford up with the spur gear facing in, so I ran it facing out, and it was barely making contact with the pinion.

This is the situation with the Fords; The spur gear is so close to the chassis that it rubs in the corners, producing a nasty screech. Before photo.

There's a slightly flared section on the chassis that I trimmed back, as well as the diagonal section near the pinion. Once trimmed I flipped the spur gear and reset the axle:

Now that's more like it! You can even see a little light in-between the spur gear and the chassis now.

I have a lot of confidence that this will be an improvement for this car. I couldn't wait 'til morning, so I set up the track and took some laps. It already sounds much better...not grindy. It had a noisy feel to it before that it seems to have lost. It sits against the pinion much better, a little inside of center.

I took another look at the Shell Ford after that, but since it's an older chassis it doesn't have that slight bit of clearance that the Gulf car does, so no matter if I trim the chassis back, it'll still be flush. That car will need a spacer on the back in order to get it back in order. I also noticed that the right rear bearing was riding loose in the bearing holder. I think that might be where the enhanced braking sound comes from. It sounds like "BIZZZZZZZ" whenever I let off the gas, but not when I'm accelerating or maintaining speed [or in the corners]. I think I'm going to get some decent bearings for the cars.
So the Gulf Ford will have the spur gear facing in, while the Shell Ford will have it facing out.

I think I'll have time to do a race in the morning. The track is all setup and I can keep it up overnight. We'll see. If not, at least I know the cars are running well.

EDIT: Turns out I didn't have time to run a race before going to work today, but I did get to put down some laps on the car, and it's a big improvement. It runs a lot smoother and there's no more gnarly noise in the turns.
It needs a bit of work on the handling, though, as it's still a little squirrely.