Rewiring the Drag Track finish gate, fixing release
Does anyone know if the finish gate can just be wired directly to the transformer to make it work? I'm letting the club use my 3Dbot maker 2 lane finish because they aren't available to buy at this time and we badly need one. I have a Drag Track set and as I'm having issues with one of the drop pins I thought I'd cannibalize the finish gate. I had hoped to get a MaxTraxx at Hobby Lobby but they aren't in the stores anymore. On line pricing is ridiculous considering they have their own issues. So I'm trying to make due with what I have available.
Discussion
hello dad,
long time no see... do you need a finish line for orange track ?
i have a manual reset finish that never failed me... it is the finish from the roll up track, forgot what they called it, morphed onto a vintage lapcounter.. been so long my photo stuff disappeared...
if it will help i will donate it to your track... email me for pix... see ya smitty ...thintin33@yahoo.com ...
- Smitty? Is that you?! It's a Christmas miracle... — redlinederby
- Hi Smitty! Yes, long time no see. I emailed you but it said invalid address. It did however let me send it anyway so I don't know if you got it. If not my email is bill.hicks54@aol.com. — Dadvball
You might want to ask Team164Bruno up about the Drag Track system. He wired his Drag Track up special to make a 4-lane release. Don't think he made the finish standalone but might have the knowledge (or lead) on how to possibly rewire things.
- Hi Brian. Thanks for the tip. I'm not savvy with the electrical stuff but I may just check it out. Thanks! — Dadvball
- Not sure I can help much with the finish gate electronics but I posted a tip for the start gate problem that seems to be pretty common with DragTracks. We were able to figure out how to simultaneously trigger four lanes with one trigger, as well as change our actual triggers to a handheld start button vs the foot pedal they give you. But the finish gate gets into the “logic” of the system and that’s beyond my ability to understand. — ChiefWopahoo
Dadvball - if the start gate trouble with your DragTracks system has to do with one or both of the gates not coming back up after releasing the cars here's what we found; if you remove the base cover (6 tiny Phillips screws) you'll find the two solenoids that lower and raise the start gates. There's a metal tab that helps lift the gate back up as the solenoid shaft rotates, and on our systems we've found that the metal lift tab can rub against the little plastic arm on the solenoid which prevents the start gate from returning to its lifted position. There needs to be a small gap between the metal tab and the arm. We've tried bending the metal arm slightly, lightly filing the end of it to create a bigger gap, and making sure the plastic arm is pushed all the way onto the solenoid shaft. It seems that making sure the arm is pushed back gives us the best operation for a longer time. Once you do it once or twice it only takes a couple minutes to do. We literally make hundreds of runs between each time we do this. Hopefully the pics will help if that's the issue. 
Thanks Team164Bruno. I actually had mine apart a half dozen times a couple of weeks ago. One of the pins wouldn't pop back up. The problem was the little "L" part of the pin would hang up on top of the revolving arm and not release. I've messed with it many times over the years. This last time I got it working and dropped some graphite in the pin slot at the top and it was working every time. It was, but not the case anymore, so I'll have to mess with it again at some point.
Thanks for your input, and the next time I take it apart I'll be sure to check the distance between the tabs and arms.
I would think you could straight wire it and make it work...seems like there was a thread a couple years ago about reworking some of the Drag Tracks components...Good Luck with it and miss you on the tracks.