Continue to Site

Eng-Tips is the largest engineering community on the Internet

Intelligent Work Forums for Engineering Professionals

  • Congratulations waross on being selected by the Eng-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!

Need advice/thoughts

Status
Not open for further replies.

tagriffith

Materials
Sep 21, 2015
2
I am working on a jig to quickly align a soap box derby car axles and wanted to get some advice.

Design layout for Jig
Soapbox_diagram_jyl1v7.jpg


Final Production
20150920_201608_iig5dy.jpg

20150920_201551_o7yn8e.jpg

20150920_201557_yqi0bn.jpg

20150920_201545_jqrz5f.jpg


The last picture shows the crank that can be turned to push the jig out in both directions. This tightens the jig up against the axles. Unfortunately, it is not working the way I wanted it too and it doesn't perfectly align the axles. In testing, the jig is able to slide left to right to skew the angle it pushes against the axles. To prevent this, I was going to weld braces on each side of jig that wrap over the edge of the soap box to prevent it from shifting left to right.

Any other ideas?

Thanks in advance!
 
Replies continue below

Recommended for you

I think what you really want to do is align the wheels themselves with the complete car and driver resting on a flat surface. It's relative alignment between the 4 wheels (F/R & L/R) and to the track surface that matters most. There are lots of books on race car setup that give a relatively simple explanation of basic wheel alignment principles.

Section 4.6 of the Soap Box Derby rulebook explains "spindling" to optimize toe and camber of each wheel.
 
Exactly. That would be the next step after axle alignment. I want to perfectly align axle and hold them in place while I align steering and adjust steering cables.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Part and Inventory Search

Sponsor