District Race

[OPARENNEN]

You don't need the bullet if you buy the pre-drilled blocks. Even with the bullet, you need a very accurate drill, like Proxxon. normal drill presses are too inaccurate, and you still end up with the rear wheels not parallel. So save yourself time and effort, and buy the blocks from DD4H. Incidentally, he has a special drilled block for areas that require all four wheels must be on the track. I have used two, and they are fantastic.

Re. Oil. Some one wrote on this forum that if the wheels are prepared well in advance, the oil is all but dry by race day (hence, dry lubricant). I have had my fill (actually my wife has) of all the mess with black graphite. I have helped Cubs build at least six cars this year. I used oil on all of them, then at the very last, sprayed graphite on a small cloth, and wiped it on the outside running surface of the wheels. The only purpose is that curious onlookers see the graphite and don't ask further questions re. lubricant. All six cars took first place, two of them in the council races. Good luck.

Thank you for the great advice and input. I know we were close (loosing by 1/2".) But unfortunately, we have been close two years in a row at Districts. I think we/I missed the boat with the rear axles. I think we will start tinkering around for next year: Silver Bullet, Oil vs Graphite (as long as dry lubricant is stated), maybe a more aggressive COM. The one thing I am still not sure about is how to keep the axle/bore from not being sloppy? or is it not possible with stock parts?

 

[Chief]

You don't need the bullet if you buy the pre-drilled blocks. Even with the bullet, you need a very accurate drill, like Proxxon. normal drill presses are too inaccurate, and you still end up with the rear wheels not parallel. So save yourself time and effort, and buy the blocks from DD4H. Incidentally, he has a special drilled block for areas that require all four wheels must be on the track. I have used two, and they are fantastic.

Re. Oil. Some one wrote on this forum that if the wheels are prepared well in advance, the oil is all but dry by race day (hence, dry lubricant). I have had my fill (actually my wife has) of all the mess with black graphite. I have helped Cubs build at least six cars this year. I used oil on all of them, then at the very last, sprayed graphite on a small cloth, and wiped it on the outside running surface of the wheels. The only put pose is that curious onlookers see the graphite and don't ask further questions re. lubricant. All six cars took first place, two of them in the council races. Good luck.

Thank you for the great advice and input. I know we were close (loosing by 1/2".) But unfortunately, we have been close two years in a row at Districts. I think we/I missed the boat with the rear axles. I think we will start tinkering around for next year: Silver Bullet, Oil vs Graphite (as long as dry lubricant is stated), maybe a more aggressive COM. The one thing I am still not sure about is how to keep the axle/bore from not being sloppy? or is it not possible with stock parts?

+[font="times new roman, times, serif"]1...and if you think about it, everything you do to the car is wet when you put it on. paint is wet, polish is wet, glue is wet. so why not put lube on wet???[/font]

 

[quadad]

Thank you for the great The one thing I am still not sure about is how to keep the axle/bore from not being sloppy? or is it not possible with stock parts?

Not sure if this is really an issue or not. Realize that the smallest wheel bore IDs are ~0.096 and the largest axle ODs are ~0.088", the best you can do is to try to get parts at those numbers.

My suggestion: If you hadn't stocked up on BSA wheels from 2010, hit all the Scout shops you can easily get to and buy 2-3 of the Anniversary Special 18-wheeler Big Rig kits. Build one Big Rig to help your Pack advertise itself, but put junk wheels on there while you sort out those primo wheels from before they started putting out the inferior stuff that is provided today. We use 1/2 thousandth gage pins to sort for wheel bore ID and do slow spin tests to determine the best of the best wheels. Then place the 2 best on the rears (non-dom side with the best) and 3rd best on the RR wheel. Keep filing and sanding of low grits to a minimum on the axles and put them in rotated in the direction that they provide the largest (oval) diameter. Oh, and find a buddy with a lathe to get those wheels to no more than 0.001 out of round. Of course you can skip all those steps if you are allowed to purchase machined wheels. Either way finish with DD4H bore prep process. If you wheels spin great and you have selected the best diameter parts to begin with, there shoudn't be anything to worry about in this area.

 

[davidhoy.pt]

Thanks for the input on wheel bore. I will try that 18 wheeler trick. We did lathe our wheels to "true." I couldn't believe the disparity in size and how out of round they were!