Quick Axle Straightness Checking Tool

[Bellator]

Stumbled across this hack when I was prep’ing my Group 5 car last year.  I outfitted my car with Sloting-Plus’ Combi Plus bushing. I ordered the wrong size for my car the first time, but this turned into a happy accident as I quickly learned which axles were straight and which were not by how easy or difficult they slid through the bushing.  Badly bent axles were either very stiff, or would not go all the way through the bushing. One would slip in ok, but would not rotate freely. The roll test on a setup block confirmed these issues for the most extent, but that’s a fiddly operation that I’ve never completely trusted for small variations.  And now I see why.  The small variations are tough to see on the block.

I was very disappointed in the number of axles in my inventory that were not straight enough to pass this simple test. (Four, two of which were new from the package.)

I now keep the happy-accident spare on my bench to check axles before installing them in a build.

Build it strong.
Keep it simple.
Make it work.
      (Leroy Grumman)

[porsche917]

I find it surprising how many axles on stock production cars are not straight.  I bet I throw away 70% of the stock axles.  It’s odd that a company like Slot.it has these untrue axles on their cars, but their aftermarket axles are straight.  NSR probably has the best quality axles on production cars.  I am sure that comes from overseeing all of their production in Italy.  I will say that their aftermarket axles are even better than the ones on their production cars.

I use the Kolhoza axle checking tool and have had great success with it.  I know it might seem expenisive but it’s better than having your cars bounce around on the track without knowing why.

[Author]

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