front wheel shims?

[Finnsllc 917]

what does everybody do to stabilize your front wheels? Have some slop plat that i want to cure. 

[Superluminal 3750]

Is the slop you have between the wheel hex and the axle bearing or in the suspension arm pivot points?

[Finnsllc 917]

@Superluminal im gonna say wheel hex 

[TurnipJF 9192]

I place shims between the axle drive cup and the inner bearing, pulling the hex closer to the outer bearing. That way they stay put when I take the wheels and hexes off, rather than falling off and getting lost as they tend to do if put between the outer bearing and the hex itself.

[Finnsllc 917]

@TurnipJF i see what u mean. is ther a size of washer that is best
? not thickness but diameter?

[Jonathon Gillham 4606]

7 minutes ago, Finnsllc said:

@TurnipJF i see what u mean. is ther a size of washer that is best
? not thickness but diameter?

They should be a 5mm internal diameter shim which is what most wheel axles are. Outside diameter probably doesn't matter too much but getting some the same size as the bearings would make sense to me

[Gazzalene 171]

Size needs to be 5mm x 7mm. Any bigger than 7mm and you normally get binding at the bearing.

[TurnipJF 9192]

Indeed. You need the shim to be small enough to make contact with only the inner bearing race, not the shield or outer one otherwise it binds. Many places sell a selection of 5x7mm shims in different thicknesses, typically 0.1mm, 0.2mm and 0.3mm.

[Frog Jumper 3661]

I use HPI #6125 washers to shim my wheels...

Terry

[Killajb 1546]

5 hours ago, TurnipJF said:

Indeed. You need the shim to be small enough to make contact with only the inner bearing race, not the shield or outer one otherwise it binds. Many places sell a selection of 5x7mm shims in different thicknesses, typically 0.1mm, 0.2mm and 0.3mm.

^^^This. I pick up packs of 20   0.1mm 0.2mm and 0.3mm shims to keep in my spares kit and use for most of my builds. 

+1 as well to what TurnipJF mentioned earlier about putting the shims between the inner bearing and the axle drive cup. 

[OoALEJOoO 3127]

Bump.

Tamiya 53587 5mm shim set works great.

Putting shims between the axle cup and inner bearing (inside):

Pros:

• Shims will stay put when removing the wheel and hex.
• There would be less tendency to pop-out dogbones since they will be more engaged with the cups. However...(see below).

Cons:

• Since you are moving the axle cup further inside, you need to be careful it does not result in compressing the dogbone when the suspension is pressed to horizontal position.
• Not necessarily a con, but you will reduce the track width.
• Disassembly of the uprights is needed.

Putting shims between the outer bearing and pin (outside):

Pros:

• Very quick/easy to do since you only need to remove the hexes & pins (no disassembly of uprights is needed).
• Track width is increased, which could be beneficial (more stable car).

Cons:

• More tendency to pop-out dogbones since engagement with the cups is reduced.
• Increased opportunity for twigs, pine needles and other debris (dog hair!) to build between the hex and the outer bearing given the increased gap.
• Shims might come out when removing hexes, although in practice I see this seldom happen since the threads on the wheel axle will tend to prevent them from sliding out.

What I try to do on my cars:

Off-road: Large droop means shimming fully on the inside can reduce dogbone engagement too much. On the rear, I normally shim half-inside/half-outside to try getting the best of both worlds. The front axle gets more shims on the inside since it also has to cope with steering.

On-road: These cars are normally run in cleaner areas, making the added gap a no-issue with twigs. Thus, they are shimmed as outside as possible while keeping dogbone engagement adequate. Normally this translates into fully shimmed outside (rear) and half/half (front).

[Pylon80 2629]

26 minutes ago, OoALEJOoO said:

Tamiya 53587 5mm shim set works great

That. It's made for it. And when you open the bag...you breath air from Japan!