Another 4 gear wheel question.

Jason, try finding a 'stock' Tjet rear axle and see how it works. They're shorter than the ones on a 4 gear.
That's what I use when I trim the wheels down.
Ron (Bondo)

I have a problem with using a t-jet axle in a 4-gear chassis. The splines in the middle of the axle that hold the crown gear are so wide that they ride in the chassis creating drag. It will also wear out the axle holes in the chassis. The smooth areas on the axle are completely outside the chassis.



Matt

Actually Matt, you're right. I just looked closer at the ones I've built and are building and yea, looks like I gotta change the axle. Guess I don't actually race them often enuff yet to know that could become a big issue. Glad you pointed that out! I probly never woulda seen it till I was either almost done with the car, or after it tears up the chassis! Plus the fact that someone else may have listened to me (I know, a 'RARE' event...LOL) and it ended up ruining THEIR chassis!
Now, the only other thing I know to do is like I did at first, and cut off the outer ends of the axles that come in them, and possibly put a small amount of glue on the end of the axle if needed. You would want to only cut off enuff to still work, but leave at least a small section of the 'splines' on them. I guess you could try to use pliers or something and put your own splines in, but not sure if you'd get enuff splines on the axle to hold it very well doing it that way, I know I personally couldn't do it.
As far as wheelie bars, if you are running any kind of speed, you WILL need them. They are a real PIA to put something on these things. The first one I did, I just drilled into the rear part of the chassis, like in the thread on the how to section on here for putting them on an inline car. BUT, the prob with that is, even after JB welding them to the chassis, you still have to be careful that you don't insert them so far that you rub the gear. You pretty much can only go in the thickness of the plastic, which means the glue won't hold well and they will continually fall out. It may still work for ya that way tho, I do have two cars that I built that way and they appear to be holding fine. Only other thing I can say is look at the thread somewhere (not sure exactly where it is on here) that Jim (Tjetsgrig) posted on the "4 Gear Drag Nova" that he built. You might get the idea from the chassis pics. Basically, a lot of shaving and sanding and a lot of JB weld! If I can get some time in the next day or so, I will try to get some pics of how I did the ones on my Pistonator. They're done just like Jim's. I redid them after seeing how he did it. I originally just drilled and glued them, but they fell out everytime the made a run, even with super glue AND JB weld.
And NoSub, if you are trimming so much wheel that it's wobbling, you trimmed off WAY too much. The backs of these rims are really thick/wide, and you don't have to trim them that far. Some guys have even gone to the extent of sanding some off the outer edge of the rim and repainting the edge black to match the tires. Actually, by painting the outer lip black, it does make the tire look like it has more 'meat'. There is a 'fine line' on how much to remove on these, as you only want to remove enuff to clear the bodies, but not so much that the tires end up riding on the rails of the track. For the record, the tires on these do not have to be all that wide, so you can trim some off them to clear the rails, altho cutting the silicone's is a LOT harder than cutting the 'stock' rubber!
Ron (Bondo)

Some cutting, some grinding, and walla the ole chevy is finally starting to sit how a promod should sit.





Looks like I'm gonna have to trim the guild flag/pin down a bit. Its bottoming out in the slot and holding the nose of the chassis up a bit.

Jason

braids on the pick-up shoes will raise the front a little bit too.

PC, once I did some grinding on the inside of the body I was able to space the rear wheels out a little more. Now I can clear the rails no problem. My next step is to get both of the fronts crammed under the body. I've already trimmed them down to the point where they rub the pick up shoes and I cant get them both inside the body. I may go hunting around my box of random parts to see if I can find narrower fronts for it.

If anybody wants to see how much I trimmed off the body let me know I'll snap a pic.

Jason

Jason,
All 4g's I have with body lowered have front wheels and tires from elsewhere. Most of which are from Hot Wheels cars. If you look at cars some have a very narrow front wheel and tire. About the size an o-ring would be. Front axle from AW can be used, be carefull when installing wheels on axles. Lucky to find four of these once, $.99 ea. Haven't found any since.
Think to use stock front wheels and get inside body I, took down wheel from both front and back. Only from back was to much and wheel touches pick-up. Leave a spacer on back of wheel to prevent this. Wheel can be narrowed from front also, tire will also need narrowing. Found the HW's about the same time and never used this set-up but it does work, have one someplace.
..................PC