Carlson's Slot Cars
Home of Custom made SensorTraks
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Fly Stub Axle Fix |
| Fly cars suffer from poorly fitting wobbly front stub axles.
There is so much play or "slop" as most people call it, that the tires rub
on the wheel-well causing poor performance and other unwanted side effects.
There are a couple of ways to fix the problem but I'm going to document
the method Al Penrose explained to me. The car I'm going to use is a brand new
Fly Lister Storm Silverstone 2000 GT A106. The Listers are one of my favorite
Fly cars and can even keep up with a Fly Viper when a couple minor mods
are made. One of these modifications is the lowering of the magnet and I will
show how I do this as well. |
| Tools | |||||||||||||||||
Here is a picture of
the car I modified and the tools I used to modify it. Not pictured is a
Dremel but I only used it to cut the brass stock so you can substitute a saw
or even a tube cutter as shown. Tools and parts I used are listed below.
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| The Fix A step by step how-to. |
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Click on the thumbnail for a
larger image. |
STEP 1 Just remove the 4 Phillips screws and the chassis separates from the body quite easily. |
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STEP 2 With your needle nose pliers grip the end of the plastic axle and hold firmly while twisting the wheel off. CAUTION: If you decide to remove the motor please take care not to bend the drive-shaft connecting spring. It is extremely important that this spring remain straight. If your Fly front engine car sounds like an egg-beater going down the track, check the spring it may be bent. |
| Here we have both wheels and axles removed. To get the axles out you might find it easier to pop the motor out but they will come out without doing it. |
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STEP 3 Measure the axle mount and mark the length onto the 1/8 brass tube. Cut and deburr 2 lengths of tube. After deburring run the 3/32 drill bit through the tube by hand. TIP: measure a little longer than you need, measure twice cut once.  |
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STEP 4 optional I also want to replace the axle, I'm only doing it as an example here but you may need to do it some day. Measure the old plastic axle and mark the length onto the 3/32 brass rod (3/32 music wire will also work). Cut and deburr 2 lengths of rod. Notice the wheel hole is quite deep and the factory axle does not come near to going all the way in, so if you want a good fit cut the axle quite a bit longer. TIP: same as above.  |
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STEP 5 With a sharp 1/8 drill bit, drill out the axle mounts being careful to hold the bit straight and level with the chassis. You may need to use a pair of pliers to hold the drill bit. TIP: Use a SHARP drill bit it really helps.  |
Click on the
thumbnail for a larger image. |
STEP 6 Do a dry fit of all the parts before the final assembly. The plastic spacer is a very tight fit on the 3/32 brass. You can use just about anything you want as an axle end just make sure it fits on straight. The axle end I'm using was purchased at Active electronics and is supposed to be used to mount printed circuit boards. I forget the exact size but the id is smaller than 3/32 which makes for a very tight fit. |
| STEP 7 Assembly |
Click on the thumbnail for a larger image |
| Here is the finished modification. All of the slop has been removed and the tire does not rub on the wheel-well. Be sure to add a small drop of oil to each axle. |
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| Next Page - Lister Magnet Modification. Author: Brent Carlson July 2003 |