Best Way To Tighten Wheel Nut So That Wheel Is Centered And Spins Without Wobble?

[PaPeRo]

I've noticed that when tightening the flanged wheel nut sometimes the wheel isn't perfectly centered around the axle shaft so when it spins you could actually see a slight wobble. Anyone know of a way to tighten the nut and have it perfectly centered every time?

[Jonny555]

The wheel hexagons should make sure the wheel is centred. Could be several reasons your suffering wobble. The hexagons have worn, the bearings might be shot, the axle is bent or maybe you haven't tightened the nuts enough.

On my nitro stadium truck I've worn through a few wheel hexagons, so I've replaced the standard plastic ones with aluminium ones. In fact the last failure I had destroyed the wheel as well. The hexagon totally rounded and ripped the centre out of the wheel. This happened because of the fierce workload I put the truck through, causing the wheel nut to loosen enough to allow some movement between wheel and hexagon. It's well worth using thread lock on the nuts.

Maybe some other members will have other ideas. Hope you get this sorted.

[PaPeRo]

In my sitaution that is not the cause of the wobble. The wheels are brand new and I'm using aluminum hex hubs. I could actually see that the nut is slightly offcenter relative to the wheel sometimes and when that happens that's when is doesn't spin perfectly. The wobble is slight but it's there. Sometimes if I'm lucky after loosening and retighting the nut I could see the wheel is perfectly centered and doesn't wobble when I spin it. The way everything is designed the tolerances are pretty lax between the wheel hole and the axle size. This is what causes the off center wobble if I tight the nut without trying to center the wheel on the axle.

I need something like hubcentric rings used on real cars but a smaller version made for RC cars.

[Jonny555]

The wheel should be a very close fit over the hex. The hex should be perfectly centred. It's got to be either the wheels or the hex. With the hex off the car, how well does it fit the wheel?

[PaPeRo]

The hex fits the wheel just like normal very close fit. It's a standard Tamiya hex fitted to a standard Tamiya wheel.

[Gruntfuggly]

Before you put the wheel nut on, can you move the wheel on the axle? You shouldn't be able to move it much at all - if you can, it sounds like the wheels have worn holes, or they are the wrong size...

[Mighty flex]

Are your wheels/tyres balanced- if the tyres are not glued, or glued out of true you will get wobble, as the whole wheel/axle/hex construction when tightened will be out of balance.

[TA-Mark]

The kit plastic hexes are famous for wobbly wheels. If the wheel nuts are overtightened the plastic hex will stretch around the cross pin and leave you with wobbly wheels.

Easiest solution is to grab a set of alloy clamp type drive hexes that clamp to the axle. The wheel always has somewhere solid to mount to then and they will not stretch around the cross pin.

I don't even bother to cut the plastic drive hexes from the parts tree anymore. New cars get alloy clamp drive hexes as they are built.

[dimblum]

Are your wheels/tyres balanced- if the tyres are not glued, or glued out of true you will get wobble, as the whole wheel/axle/hex construction when tightened will be out of balance.

Mighty Flex is right. Centering your wheels perfectly won't help if the wheels are out of balance - and nearly 100% of wheels will be.

Get a wheel balancer and some poster putty to fix the balance of each one.. Once they are set right, your car will run with near zero wheel vibration.