Well after sitting as a pile of parts in the closet I decided to put the 1/6 back together and see if I could get it running... much to my surprise after cleaning the connections very well where it ate the cheap newbright AA's that came with it and throwing in some rechargeable batteries it seems to work fine!

I sure wish I could upgrade this thing to hobby electronics but I cant help but think it wouldnt run well at all on 7.2 volts when its 19.2 volt at the moment... those batteries are a real pain to find

Just connect 3 batteries 7.2 volts in serial (+ to -),so with 21.6 volts,it will run.If you are afraid,plug 2 ,it will be 14.4v.
I would not be afraid to plug 3,with the experiments done before with 9.6v.