Testing axles & wheels: spinning then quick stop?

[Dad o' Scouts]

I'm not sure how best to describe this... I'm holding axle in hand and spinning wheel and every so often the sound suddenly changes, almost like it's speeding up and then stops. I know sometimes it does that from the start, but this time even when I get a good start and it's humming along okay, it'll just switch. I've looked at whether it's just hitting the head, but that doesn't seem to be it.

Trying to figure out if I've got bad bore on wheel, bad axle, or just bad form. Any ideas?

 

[Hangtime]

Lol. I’m sure we’ve all experienced that. Scout wheels and axles... the axles aren’t straight or round. The bore in the hub is tapered. The wheels hop and wobble. League racers use better axles and machined wheels. Scout racers need to sort thru dozens ( hundreds? ) of wheels to find good ones.

 

[Dad o' Scouts]

Thanks!

 

[T-Bone Racing]

Lol. I’m sure we’ve all experienced that. Scout wheels and axles... the axles aren’t straight or round. The bore in the hub is tapered. The wheels hop and wobble. League racers use better axles and machined wheels. Scout racers need to sort thru dozens ( hundreds? ) of wheels to find good ones.

I have used both league and scout parts, and with scout parts, the best I can do is polish the axles, polish the wheels, put the car together, and hope for the best. The parts are not perfect, but polishing will make a difference.