Race Friday. My latest problem....

Tim DeBoer

Tim DeBoer

Pinewood Ninja
Jan 17, 2019
46
6
8
53
Minneapolis, MN
hammer at 2.5 degrees. After the mess of playing with duport chain saver and cleaning the axles the black marker I made on the axel head to show when the bend starts is cleaned off. Hope Im explaining this well. You mark an axel head and place in the tool then hit with hammer a few times. This shows where the bend is and where the axel places in the back and front of the car. Back 2 marker lines at 6 o clock position the front passager side at 12 noon position. My problem is....The marker is cleaned off. The only way I can see where the bend starts is with my cheater glasses and then kinda guess and mark it again. A 2.5 degree bend is pretty slight. My worry is the back 2 tires may not be exactly the same. Maybe one axel at 530pm position and the other at 6:45pm position. For peace of mine I still have time to run to hobby lobby and buy 4 axles for 5 bucks or so and do all the sanding and diamond dust compound work then mark and bend the new axels. Would take about 1 hour tonight. Or will eyeballing and guessing where the exact 6 o clock position on my ready ready axels be fine?
 
Tim DeBoer said:
hammer at 2.5 degrees. After the mess of playing with duport chain saver and cleaning the axles the black marker I made on the axel head to show when the bend starts is cleaned off. Hope Im explaining this well. You mark an axel head and place in the tool then hit with hammer a few times. This shows where the bend is and where the axel places in the back and front of the car. Back 2 marker lines at 6 o clock position the front passager side at 12 noon position. My problem is....The marker is cleaned off. The only way I can see where the bend starts is with my cheater glasses and then kinda guess and mark it again. A 2.5 degree bend is pretty slight. My worry is the back 2 tires may not be exactly the same. Maybe one axel at 530pm position and the other at 6:45pm position. For peace of mine I still have time to run to hobby lobby and buy 4 axles for 5 bucks or so and do all the sanding and diamond dust compound work then mark and bend the new axels. Would take about 1 hour tonight. Or will eyeballing and guessing where the exact 6 o clock position on my ready ready axels be fine?
Click to expand...

Hi Tim, Im not am expert but I try. I think there are many ways to find the bend. Some of those ways would depend on if the axles are already installed. 1. roll the axles on a flat surface. when they bend is up, i think that is your 6 o'clock. 2 hold the axles in front of a flashlight in a dark room and look at the projection on the wall. the shadow should be gigantic and you might be able to rotate the axle to find the 12 oclock by eye. 3 Use a machine shop digital comparitor, it works just like the flashlight method but better. 4. use some dial calipers to measure the axles from different rotational axis or clock positions to deduce the bend location. 5 put the car with the axles sticking out on a flat surface and use a small dial gauge mounted to a heavy magnetic base. run the axle head back and forth against the the dial gauge plunger tip and rotate to different clock positions in between each measurements to find the high spot on the dial gauge. Tool and die makers use comparitors and dial gauges on a granite surface plate to check for things such as flatness. Also, a roll test would show steer, but with four bent axles, you might need to Target each axles by shifting as much weight as you can on each wheel. i think they call that cantalavered. Don't sweat it, my awana race is tonight and i still need to bore polish and mount the wheels. I understand being under the pressure. At the end of the day, just put it together and have a car. Good Luck Brother!
 
Last edited:
If you have a pinewood pro body jig ?
Use it as a 123 blocks, Insert the axles put the body in the jig & slide it til they touch & rotate the axles against the drill jig.
Maybe a quick fix, not sure if the axle heads will fit outside the drill block or not.
or like was mentioned calipers down the shaft length.
Good luck
 
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How critical is it that both back wheels bend marks are at 6pm positions and not one at 530p and another 645pm. Im not apposed to starting over with 2 new back axels.
 
Tim, for myself, as an amateur speaking, main thing for me is the back wheels need to migrate outwards towards the tapered inside axel head. that's I roll em. good luck !
 
Tim DeBoer said:
How critical is it that both back wheels bend marks are at 6pm positions and not one at 530p and another 645pm. Im not apposed to starting over with 2 new back axels.
Click to expand...

The problem is we can't answer your question with any certainty. That is because all scout axles are not straight. You may be just fine having them slightly different than they were before, but it also might make a big difference. There is no way for us to tell you for sure.

If you end up installing one at 5:30 and the other at 6:45, you won't know that for sure either. But, you can make sure that the wheels migrate out to the axle heads! Check this rolling the car both directions. Rotate the axles until the wheels pop out to the head rolling forward. Then check to see if they stay there while rolling backwards. Forwards is more important, but get it as close as you can backwards also. This will get you close to the goal of zero toe-in.
 
She won 1st place. Her car was faster than last years car but I thought all times were faster. Maybe the track more at a angle at the start? She raced 6 times down each lane and never lost. I have photos and video on facebook if anyone wants to see. I dont think the competionion was very serious. Alot of cars that look like animals. A few even 4" with fur. Lol. I feel bad for the 2nd place girl. She was very close and never loat a race either. If she was in any other troop like brownies for example she would have been 1st. They dont have an over all champion just 3 champions from the 3 troops daisy, brownie juniors
 
Tim DeBoer said:
She won 1st place. Her car was faster than last years car but I thought all times were faster. Maybe the track more at a angle at the start? She raced 6 times down each lane and never lost. I have photos and video on facebook if anyone wants to see. I dont think the competionion was very serious. Alot of cars that look like animals. A few even 4" with fur. Lol. I feel bad for the 2nd place girl. She was very close and never loat a race either. If she was in any other troop like brownies for example she would have been 1st. They dont have an over all champion just 3 champions from the 3 troops daisy, brownie juniors
Click to expand...
Message me if wanna be fb
Tim DeBoer said:
She won 1st place. Her car was faster than last years car but I thought all times were faster. Maybe the track more at a angle at the start? She raced 6 times down each lane and never lost. I have photos and video on facebook if anyone wants to see. I dont think the competionion was very serious. Alot of cars that look like animals. A few even 4" with fur. Lol. I feel bad for the 2nd place girl. She was very close and never loat a race either. If she was in any other troop like brownies for example she would have been 1st. They dont have an over all champion just 3 champions from the 3 troops daisy, brownie juniors
Click to expand...
 
As far as tuning axles go you can cut tuning slots in the heads with a Dremel or screw cutter. If you want to save the polish work set them on a flat surface and gently roll the bends will drop to the bottom.... Remark and go.....when installing pay attention to top vs bottom...but best Not to bend rears
 
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