Tiger 1 tracks slipping and comming off sprockets

[Phil Woollard]

Think of the spacers and the inner race of the bearings as a continuous piece of material, the wheels are usually bonded to the outer bearing race, the wheels can rotate as the protruding smaller spacers diameter fit through the wheel and therefore don't pinch the wheel center they pinch the inner bearing race

[Wael Hazin]

Phil,

I think your talking about the copper washer/spacer. Where I’m talking about the big spacer that fits between the wheels such as part #13 in the assembly instructions I posted. Sorry if I didnt explain myself a little better. Again, thanks for your input and help

Regards,
Wael

[Wael Hazin]

Here are 2 pics better describing what I mean
One photo shows the axle not compressed while the other is binding against that big wheel spacer. Currently, when I tighten everything up, those big spacers are NOT rotating and I think they should be. My question is: should they rotate freely when everything is tightened up with the M4 screw? If so, I then need to mill some material off each end of those big spacers so that everything can rotate freely. Otherwise, when an axle is compressed and binds against an adjacent spacer, it will prevent the wheel on the compressed axle from rotating which doesn’t make any sense to me. I hope this helps.

Regards
Wael

[Phil Woollard]

No the big spacers should not rotate, the bearings rotate and the wheel rotates. The spacers also need turning down so they do not rub up against the rubber tyre next to it ref the shims, these are wafer thin washers to find tune the assembly, you can use m4 washers turned down on the ends of the axles to get that nipping up correct.
Now it is possible to make up each axle wheel assembly as per the 1/1 so the whole assembly rotates as one , so that all the spacers the lot turn bolted together, now thats another story, you could check out one of my tiger builds threads where I have done just that.

[Peter Silcock]

One or two things to bear in mind. Don't tighten the M4 right down, this will lock everything up as you have found out. Only tighten sufficiently to prevent wheel wobble(another problem in itself). Use Loktite to prevent the M4 from working totally loose. If you are going to machine the axle spacers don't go too far, if you do there won't be enough support for the wheels. I would get narrower spacers made with large flanges to support the wheels. Personally I prefer the spacers to rotate since this avoids the problem you have pointed out Wael. As Phil says only the double wheels need proper accurate alignment. I'm sure others had different approaches to these issues, but the above worked for me.

[Wael Hazin]

Thank you Phil and Peter! I really appreciate your help. I agree that the spacers need to be machined down since their current diameter doesn’t leave too much room for adjacent wheel movement. Any recommendations as to how much to take off? Would armortek current tiger spacers work for what I’m trying to do since I have to get these machined by a machine shope?


Thanks
Wael

[Adrian Harris]

The new Tiger wheel arrangement is completely different.

The wheel spacers bolt to the wheels, and the PCD of the holes around the hubs is different between the new and old wheels.

Adrian.

[Wael Hazin]

Adrian:

Thank you for the info. I guess machining is the way to go.

[Phil Woollard]

This always hapoens, to much info, just get the spacers correctly set up for each axle and then think about machining . These older kits were a bugger but you will get there in the end mate

[Peter Silcock]

Thank you Phil and Peter! I really appreciate your help. I agree that the spacers need to be machined down since their current diameter doesn’t leave too much room for adjacent wheel movement. Any recommendations as to how much to take off? Would armortek current tiger spacers work for what I’m trying to do since I have to get these machined by a machine shope?


Thanks
Wael

Wael, if you want to pm me your address, I will send you a sketch and measurements of the axle spacers I have on one of the first Tigers. They are narrow but with large flanges to support the wheels and solve all the problems. If you are going to the trouble of going to a machine shop, you may as well go the whole hog! Shouldn't be too expensive in steel either.

[Wael Hazin]

hi Peter

I will pm you now

[Wael Hazin]

Pete,

Here is the image I referred to in the pm. And here is my question for anyone’s future reference

I have another question with regards to the spacers/flanges on part of the axle shaft. Please see pic for more clarification. Does this also get machined down? The reason I’m asking is two fold. One, I drilled and inserted a pin to prevent the axle from ever leaving the swing arm. Second, I am currently working on installing all the suspension parts and wanted to know if I am getting a head of myself. Getting those pins out will be a nightmare. The diameter of this spacer clearly leaves lots of room to be machined and giving the inside single wheel more room. Please let me know what you think.

[Peter Silcock]

Pete,

Here is the image I referred to in the pm. And here is my question for anyone’s future reference

I have another question with regards to the spacers/flanges on part of the axle shaft. Please see pic for more clarification. Does this also get machined down? The reason I’m asking is two fold. One, I drilled and inserted a pin to prevent the axle from ever leaving the swing arm. Second, I am currently working on installing all the suspension parts and wanted to know if I am getting a head of myself. Getting those pins out will be a nightmare. The diameter of this spacer clearly leaves lots of room to be machined and giving the inside single wheel more room. Please let me know what you think.

Wael, one model I had did have a considerable amount of wear on these parts due to wheels rubbing. If you have partly assembled I would check to see if you will have this problem. If so (and on the basis that you have already pinned the axles) I would be tempted to grind narrow flats on the boss to give clearance. I have seen this done on models and you can't really see the modification when the tank is fully assembled. The alternative would be to drill out the pins and machine the boss down but you will have to leave a flange to support the wheel.

[Wael Hazin]

Pete,

Again, thank you for the great advice. I have aligned the axles perfectly at 45 degrees and there just isn’t much room. I know machining would be much cleaner, but I may have to consider the grinding option. I will keep you posted on my progress.

Regards,
Wael