Xstream pure stock car ,Dominate wheel will not track to the nail head.

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clp

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Dec 19, 2011
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After writing this I think I have figured it out but feel free to post on this for others who may have the same problem.

Guys I am having problems getting Xstream pure stock car to push the front dominate wheel off the car body. I am using the sg 91 axles prebent and cut for the screw driver adjustment. I have a few of these and have tryed them all thinking it may be the axle not allowing the wheel to get to the nail head. They are all doing it. I have tried putting bent axles in the rear to help steer the front but that does not seem to help either. The car is running on a 32' Freedom track and I have never had this issue before. The car makes the zip sound from riding on the edge of the front wheel and is very stable from start to finish. There is no indication of wooble. I just cant seem to get this front wheel to stay off the body. I have tuned it for 3/4" steer over 6 feet all the way up to 6" steer at 6 feet.
Needless to say I am stumped.

Im thinking maybe I do not have a straight axle hole on the front Dominate wheel. I used the Block and my Proxxen table drill and I use that short no walk #44 bit and then used the vise drill to finish it with a #44 bit. I may have moved the internal hole with the pin vise drill bit. This has happened to me before. Have any one of you every had this happen to you?
 
When you have it set up right . The front wheel should have a positive cant and the rear wheels should have a negative cant. Which means the rear will go to the axle head and the front DFW will want to migrate to the body. Therefor if allowed use a Teflon washer at front wheel and if not allowed polish very smooth and rub grafite in that area and if using oil there are other things that can be done .All the guys will offer many tips there if needed if you using oil.The whine with bent frt axle is normal with a huge bent in front axle and I know it is good when I hear that sound.......HAVE FUN.......SPIRIT.......
 
I know the "expert" at that "other" site says that the DFW doesn't ride on the body and that it is held out at the axle head by the wheel running the rail.... He says it may only hit the body during the transistion.

I say that he is totally wrong. I say the DFW rides the body all the way down the track. I can pull the DFW retainer on my mod and the wheel never comes off until the car hits the stop section. I have not tried it with a wide wheel car, but I expect the same result.
 
Yes I am thinking that it may ride the body also. The sound from the edge of the wheel is a the sound you want. I was thinking my last car had the front dominate wheel riding the nail head. But I may be mistaken. I have a spacewalker body shim there so I guess it will be ok. I was thinking the shim might have moved my axle forward when glued.
 
Ill set my track up this weekend for a derby work shop and maybe Ill have a chance to look at this again. I need about .010 more in time to insure a win next weekend at our distric race. Currently running 2.465 to 2.454 on my 32' track and I need to be down around the 2.445's. I am not sure if I have my fenders on right but I have messed with the car so much over the last few days its all a blur from where I started now.
 
It might be to late for you clp, but what I do is take lots of notes...that way if my car happens to do well I will know and remember what I did. That works vice versa as well, when I do something that doen NOT work then I know NOT to do that again...My street rod melt down is a very good Xample of that!!! I am still trying to figure all this out too and when I get it then I can try to repeat it but until then it is note books for me
 
Yes I know what you mean. I waited till just a few weeks ago to get all this going. Trouble is the wife hates Pinewood derby season. We fight over the track being setup. Alot Of BS that some of you proably know about. SO instead of starting months in advance I waited and now Im regreting it. I do have notes from previous builds. but this is the first car like this I have built. I know if I can get that front wheel off the body I will get the numbers I need. I have narrowed it down to this one axle. The rear axle holes are perfect. But still unsure if the fenders are adding any speed. This car is a 1/4" plank loaded with 1/4" tungsten cubes. Balsa Fenders and trimmed underneath so not to touch the track. The front Dominate wheel area is trimed 1/16" so the Dominate wheel will find the rail quicker and keep the rear away from the rail.
I do know this I will figure it out. I think my shim that is glued to the body may have moved the axle forward a bit and may be causing the front wheel to rub the body hard. I've been at work out of state for a few days. But I will be going back in the morning and will look it over.

hmmm
 
Something else to do when tuning your car (Quicktime showed me this) is to run your car on the flat section of your track and put the front of the car facing the slope and give it a gentle push and watch it REAL close for anything that may need attention too...it was pretty amazing what that simple little test revealed...Good luck to you!!!
 
Yes Chief that is the same test I was doing when I discovered the inner wheel hub was rubbing the front of the car. I also discovered that the dominate outer wheel hub was catching on the axle groove close to the axle head if the nail was not inserted so far into the car.
confused.gif
 
Wow that is quite an axle gap!
eeek
clp said:
Yes Chief that is the same test I was doing when I discovered the inner wheel hub was rubbing the front of the car. I also discovered that the dominate outer wheel hub was catching on the axle groove close to the axle head if the nail was not inserted so far into the car. /images/boards/smilies/confused.gif
Click to expand...
 
If your outer hub is catching in the axle groove, your gap is way to big. I run my gaps as small as I can get away with, and the wheel not scrub.
 
Ok I was able to get the car down to 2.447 I rememberd I had some dd4h graphite and I don't like using it because the squeeze bottle is hard to use. But I used the paint brush method and I was able to get some speed gains I was looking for. Only they are not consistant. 2.447, 2.448, 2.450 then a 2.465. It's like as soon as the graphite wears off I'm screwed.
 
Do you have a electric start gate? If not more than likely that is where your time difference is coming from.

clp said:
Ok I was able to get the car down to 2.447 I rememberd I had some dd4h graphite and I don't like using it because the squeeze bottle is hard to use. But I used the paint brush method and I was able to get some speed gains I was looking for. Only they are not consistant. 2.447, 2.448, 2.450 then a 2.465. It's like as soon as the graphite wears off I'm screwed.
Click to expand...
 
It is a manual spring loaded gate. It could be causing me problems. Any tips for keeping graphite on the axles?
 
Is your gate slamming really hard into the bolts that hold it on? Mine was and the little foam piece wasn't even touching. I installed a bigger foam stop and mine times became much more consiste
nt.
 
No oil in our races. But I am pretty sure some are running oil due to consist times. But Im not to worried about it. I know the car can run the times needed. Thanks everyone for the input.
 
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