Wobble Problem?

[HogWild]

I am in need of a little expert advice to avoid future issues.....

During our District races my son's car started out strong, but after a few races began to wobble badly. Off the start his car would always have a large lead, but by the time it hit the flat portion of the track it would begin to wobble and then limp across the finish line. I checked the alignment prior to the race and although not perfect, it did roll fairly straight. I first noticed the wobble during the Pack races, which it really did not hamper the performance of his car as he took 1st in Den and 3rd overall. However, during the District race the wobble after the first three races was very pronounced and only got worst. After the races I checked the axles to see if they may have come unseated, but they were still tight. Could it have been a weight distribution problem or possibly that I put a little too much time on smoothing out the axles and diminished the diameter of the axles enough that it created the wobble? Any thoughts how I may be able to avoid this in the future?

Thanks,

HogWild

[cheelwheels]

hogwild
We had the same problem as you only in reverse. My grandsons car ran in the district race prior to his pack race. He had to run there in the adult division because his mother had other plans for him that day. So I ran his car in the open Adults and took 3rd. The car performed beutifully for its first test. This was on a 6 lane aluminum track with a modest drop. The pack race was not so good however. They had a test nite for the cars and the wobble was horendous. The problem was weight ditribution. His father put the weight to far to the rear and as soon as it hit the straight ssection the wobble was so bad the car left the track a couple of times. We even went as far as to tryu to build another car before the pack race. Our only solution was to add more weight to the front and widen the rear wheels some. The wobble was not as bad but was still there.
The end result of all of this is try to know what track you are going to run on. In general the weight should be toward the rear but for slightly forward of the rear wheels. Read as many post as you can on this board and on Derby Talk and you will learn more. We took 1st in his Tiger Den and 4th overall. Not bad I thought considering. Best of luck in the future.
Jim

[HogWild]

I had his weight, the majority of the weight that is, sitting on and aft of the rear axle. I added addition weight to the front to try to balance it out and thought that I had acheived my goal. However, I do see your point and our next car will have the weight directly over and forward of the rear axle.

Thanks for the advice!

HogWild

[TheKingOdysseus]

So far, I've found that if the car balances about an inch in front of the rear axles, it seems to run with less "wobble".