After just recently purchasing the tank tread kit, I was attempting to try it out. When assembling idler wheels, I came across a problem. Two of the four wheels have something inside the hole where the shaft goes, and I can’t place a shaft more than half way into the wheels. Is this normal? Should I not have hammered a shaft in? If this is not normal, where would I get replacement idler wheels (not to mention replacement shafts, the hammered one isn’t going anywhere any time soon)?
ya…the ones that just guide the tread arn meant to be powered, but if you cant put te shaft through the sprocket (wheel with spikes) then you have a problem…
mmmm… i dont know if ther’s a place you can go but there might be a # you can call… i would check the box and if ther is one try to call them and explain your porblem… maybe you’ll get a refund or somthing.
Normally, you should not need that much force to get a gear/sprocket onto a shaft. By using a hammer, you might have caused the shaft to go in crooked, which by hammering it would cause it to damage the plastic inside the sprocket. This would be analogous to cross-threading a screw, by forcing it instead of letting the threads do their work.
I was able to finally get the shaft out, without any destruction to it. I took a file to the inside of the wheels afterwards, and I was left with a usable shaft hole (is that what you call it?). Thank you to those that replied.
These parts are all molded. It is unlikely that one part would be defective like this. Please post pictures of the part so we can better identify the problem.
I already fixed the problem by filing out the inside, so pictures would show nothing now. I apologize for not thinking about that earlier.
It appeared to me that it was just an incredibly small amount of leftover plastic in the center, putting a very slight bulge on the edges of the shaft hole.
FYI I have found that when cutting axles they will develop a small lip which gets in the way when sliding anything on. I’ve found it’s good practice to run each edge of the cut end along a file when I’ve finished cutting. It rounds the end and makes it much easier to slide things on.
Yes, you would be correct. This especially happens when using a Dremel tool. I’ve also found some axle at True Value stores that carry National products, there are 12inch pieces of 1/8 bar stock. Those fit very tightly in the shaft holes but not in the shaft collars. So taking a file or better yet, a grinding stone on a Dremel tool to file down the corners make these perfect and very innexpensive.
