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When you have ever built wheel hubs that use an axle to attach the wheel to - typically a 5.5L axle with end stop - then you must be familiar with the substantial slack such a connection is suffering from. If your wheel hubs have a more or less flat surface facing the wheel, like the wheel hub shown below, then it helps to fill the inside of the rim with 3 2L half beams, each attached to 2 3L axles, which are in turn inserted into the 6 pin holes of the rim. When the half beams are lowered deap enough into the wheel - you have to push them slidely away from the center of the rim to get them into place - and the 3L axles are inserted all the way into the half beams, the whole thing does not only make a tight fit, but also makes a nice flat surface together with the outer end of the axle hole of the rim. See images below. Now when you slide a belt wheel over the 3L axles on the other side of the rim, the whole thing is ready to slide over the axle coming out of the wheel hub. While doing so, make sure the 6 3L axles are not inserted further into the rim, as that would disturb the flat surface on the inside of the wheel. Slide the rim over the axle all the way. Finally, slide two extra half bushes to avoid the rim from sliding off the axle. Now the slack of the rim-axle-connection should be reduced by about 50%, while the rim rotates as smoothly as before. EDIT: I found out that using half bushes on the inside of the wheel makes an even better surface and reduces the chances on stuttering even further (I haven't experienced any stuttering sofar). The edges of the half bushes are slightly more smooth than the edges of the 2L thin liftarms that I used before. To anchor the setup I placed the three 2L liftarms on the outiside of the wheel. To finish the whole thing there are 2 options: Option 1 - For the ones living on the edge: Before sliding the rim onto the 5.5L axle, place a half bush right between the 3 short liftarms. You can't just push it into place; use an auxiliary axle to align the half bush with the rim and make sure the last part you put in place is one of the 6 3L axles. That should do the trick. This makes a tight finish (2nd image below). Option 2 - For the LEGO purists: After sliding the rim onto the 5.5L axle, place a half bush on the axle to lock up the 3 short lift arms. This makes a legal finish (3rd image below). -
Warning: The suggested solution may not be regarded as perfectly 'legal' by some of you. Find out for yourself whether you want to go as far as this when it comes to fine-tuning your build. Everyone who has ever played around with custom steering setups with realstic features such as caster angel and/or camber angle knows the hassle of finding the most optimal tie rod and tooth rack position. Optimal in a sense that effects like toe-in, toe-out and bump steer are avoided as much as possible. And when you have found the optimal placement, there is still so much slack in the ball joints that your build is always left with a certain amount of toe-in or toe-out, When all seems fine when driving forward, there will be some toe-in/toe-out when driving backwards. It may not be the most aesthetic solution but I found a very effective way to reduce the slack in the tie rod / ball joint connections. Simply tie one or more rubber belts around the ball joints, just below the ball part of the joint. In my case the combination of a red rubber belt (24mm) and a white rubber belt (15mm) worked out perfectly, see image below. Note that in a standard steering setup with all ball joints perfectly aligned on a 1-stud grid, this approach will prove hard to apply, as it will pull the pivot points slightly away from their ideal position. It is particularly useful in custom setups that try to obtain non-standard features such as caster angle, camber angle or Ackermann steering.
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