robothut Posted June 10, 2013 Share Posted June 10, 2013 I had the job of repairing the motor and battery box of a Mars Explorer Space car yesterday so decided to shoot a short video of it. The car is battery operated and uses two C cell type batterys. The front wheels can be set for the direction you want the car to go. The red tail piece is lit and moves in and out with a clicking sound. These little cars really move when they are working right. A few design problems with the car would be there is no provision for a Kid pushing the toy backwards on the floor, this would jam the mechanics that move the lit tail part and the clicker doing damage inside, also the wire that goes from the moving lit tail part then too the motor is a very stiff wire and only gets more ridged with time, it is trying to move back and forth as the tail part moves. this stresses the connection at the motor. Also the motor is the plastic case type "like seen in many Mechanized robots" the brushes are mounted in plastic, so as this tail piece wire moves back and forth it not only stresses the connection at the motor but also the motor brush its self is effected. The solution is to replace the old light wire with a new flexible one and solder it to the battery box instead of the motor brush. here is the you tube of the car in action. http://youtu.be/lHkBq6m2-8M Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robothunter Posted June 10, 2013 Share Posted June 10, 2013 Beautiful Toy and wonderful repair work John!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robothut Posted June 10, 2013 Author Share Posted June 10, 2013 Thanks Pat. I only did mechanical and electrical repair work to the car. It could use a little touch up paint work around the base to really look perfect but I do not like to do that type of work to vintage toys unless they really need it. I would rather have a toy in "Played with condition" that is 100 % original than one that is touched up. So I leave the paint touch up question to the owner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Action Robot Posted June 10, 2013 Share Posted June 10, 2013 Man, that thing really hauls! Nice repair work...and thanks for sharing the details of what you do, information like that is very useful to those of us who aspire to tackle our own repairs. Cheers, Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve Posted June 10, 2013 Share Posted June 10, 2013 My favorite space toy -nice work John. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morbius Posted June 10, 2013 Share Posted June 10, 2013 Wonderful toy which after 50 or so years fell into the hands of the most talented repairer on the planet. Someone somewhere saved this great toy from certain demise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nasa Posted June 11, 2013 Share Posted June 11, 2013 Brilliant space toy and a fitting name......Great work John.....and kudos to the lucky owner ;o) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Racerxc70 Posted June 11, 2013 Share Posted June 11, 2013 Brilliant! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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