Axel Tightening Troubleshooting
Hello! I recently wore out the stock wheels on my Zoom 100 Pros. I grabbed a new pack of wheels and transferred over the old bearings/spacers. Everything in the setup is exactly the same except for the wheels themselves. I'm now finding that I cannot torque the axles as much as I had once been able to without seriously impeding the bearings. I see many people recommending that axles be tightened 'finger tight plus a quarter/eighth turn'. While this method does allow my wheels and bearings to spin extremely fast/long, it doesn't seem like enough torque and I can hear the wheels wiggle/make a lot of noise as I'm skating. I'm curious if anyone has tips to troubleshoot this issue as I'd like to feel more confidence in my axles not slipping out, but don't want to suffer too much performance loss. Perhaps wider spacers would prevent the possible compression/rubbing which causes the speed loss?
Thank you for your help!
Comments
The issue is most likely your new wheels have a wider bearing spacing than before, so your spacers are too narrow. When my daughter was racing back in the early 2Ks I kept a big bag of spacers handy for wheel changes. Even a couple of thousandths difference can make problems if the spacer is too narrow. If every thing is correct one can tighten the axle a lot more than 1/4 turn. The "trick" of 1/8 to 1/4 is a good way arond some spacer to wheel problems, but having the correct spacer is the right answer.
If the problem was that the spacer was too wide, it would be very difficult to get the bearing / wheel assembly into the frame.
If you want to make new spacers and you happen to have a drill press, I can relate how I make mine. First, few calipers can measure the inside webbing/gap between the two bearing seats. So, this complicates the process for most folks unless you have a specialized and somewhat pricey set of "reverse" calipers or you can afford to saw one of the wheels in half in order to get at the webbing with regular calipers. So, what I do is to start with aluminum spacers from the skateboard world. They use 8mm axle's just like us roller skaters. Then I fix the spacer itself into my drill press and torque it down just like you'd do with a drill bit. I take about 90% of the metal off that needs to come off to fit the wheel. Do it by lowering the bit down on abrasives. I start with a mill file then move to sandpaper (80 grit works nicely). Without measurements you can do it by lots of test-fitting. Once it's close, then you take it out of the drill press and measure it with calipers to determine if you made any high spots. I magic marker those spots and take them down using sandpaper on a granite block (same one I lower the drill press down onto) but do a bit of hand grinding to get the last thousandth or so off. Caliper test over and over until it's as perfect as you like. Then I also polish the ends with a set of DMT diamond stones and a Norton stone up to 8000 Grit. They shine/reflect like mirrors. For fun, I also polish the speed washers I use to the same level. I like everything shiny and square.
Do that 8 times and you've got a set of bearing spacers that fit your wheels perfectly. I go as far as to match each spacer to each wheel by using a punch to number each spacer, then numbering the backside of the wheels with a fine point industrial Sharpie.
Depending on how nutty you are, the quality of your equipment, and how much time you have, my experience proves one can definitely create greater than 2-minute free-spinning times even with small torque applied to the entire axle-stack. The process takes me about 3.5 hours for 8 spacers.