How often do you guys reclean the wheels? Car has run 8 races since completed. Thanks in advance
Wheel Maintenance
- Thread starter My05suzuki
- Start date
It depends on what you mean....
I would clean the outer tread as often as possible, so after every race, no need to remove wheels from car for his step... Use superfine sandpaper followed by a soft cloth to remove dust, grime, and graphite from running surfaces. Clean wheels are fast wheels...
What are you lubricating with?
If you are running oil, you can probably run 50 to 100 runs without doing anything to the wheelbores.
If running graphite, I would add more graphite and see if your speed returns, if not tear down, clean everything, and reprep.
Is the car still fast? If so you probably don't need to do anything...
I would clean the outer tread as often as possible, so after every race, no need to remove wheels from car for his step... Use superfine sandpaper followed by a soft cloth to remove dust, grime, and graphite from running surfaces. Clean wheels are fast wheels...
What are you lubricating with?
If you are running oil, you can probably run 50 to 100 runs without doing anything to the wheelbores.
If running graphite, I would add more graphite and see if your speed returns, if not tear down, clean everything, and reprep.
Is the car still fast? If so you probably don't need to do anything...
They are graphite wheels, have only made 8 runs down a track. Car still seems to be quick, wasn't sure if I should take them all the way off and repack and clean.
When I'm testing, I do 10 runs and then make any adjustments to the car, including wheel cleaning. Now granted, I only run unlimited cars and I will minimally wipe down the track before each test session, so the wheels don't get all that dirty. I probably clean the wheels more often than actually needed
When I did run graphite cars, I needed to clean them more often.
To clean the wheels, it is not necessary to remove them, the wheel tread is what needs to be clean. This can be done with very fine sandpaper (1000 or finer), a fingernail sanding block, or simply a clean sheet of paper, Just spin the wheels over the surface and it will clean them.
As far as relubing, again, with bearings, we run them dry. Oil cars can go hundreds of runs without relubing. On a graphite car, it seemed that I could never seem to make it last more than a handful of runs. You can just tap in some at the inner and outer bore, you don't have to remove the wheel every time.
When I did run graphite cars, I needed to clean them more often.
To clean the wheels, it is not necessary to remove them, the wheel tread is what needs to be clean. This can be done with very fine sandpaper (1000 or finer), a fingernail sanding block, or simply a clean sheet of paper, Just spin the wheels over the surface and it will clean them.
As far as relubing, again, with bearings, we run them dry. Oil cars can go hundreds of runs without relubing. On a graphite car, it seemed that I could never seem to make it last more than a handful of runs. You can just tap in some at the inner and outer bore, you don't have to remove the wheel every time.
To add to what Zeeb mentioned about graphite, at MA my boys ran two graphite cars. Before the race I limited each car to no more than 2 test runs. After that they were taken to Nebraska. At the race they Ran 6 Heats in the Main Race, the 6 more Heats in the Finals race.
The fastest runs at the race were Run 4 for the Main Race and Run 5 in the Finals Race for Car 1, Car 2 ran fastest on Run 1 in the Main, Run 5 in the final.
We finished in 3rd and 10th place at that race.
Each car ran 14 total runs, and then I've torn them down to reprep. I'm not sure I'd want to go much further than that on graphite, I'd worry about damaging the wheelbores. That being said, my cars had not yet "slowed" significatly after 14 runs, they may have safely gone to 20 or more, I'm afraid to go that far honestly!
The fastest runs at the race were Run 4 for the Main Race and Run 5 in the Finals Race for Car 1, Car 2 ran fastest on Run 1 in the Main, Run 5 in the final.
We finished in 3rd and 10th place at that race.
Each car ran 14 total runs, and then I've torn them down to reprep. I'm not sure I'd want to go much further than that on graphite, I'd worry about damaging the wheelbores. That being said, my cars had not yet "slowed" significatly after 14 runs, they may have safely gone to 20 or more, I'm afraid to go that far honestly!
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