[KensRedZed]

Somewhere back on page 2 of this silly thread, I discovered my worst AW T-jet car was a black Vega with a very floppy cluster shaft.

It sounded like a chainsaw as it slowly made it's way down the track. I also said the driven and pinion gears flopped around like a dead fish.

I recently took the car apart. The cluster shaft measured 0.058", and the knurl was poorly made. The shaft was also scratched from the factory. I had a cut-off from an axle that measured 0.0615" diameter. I just needed to trim the length.

   

It was actually too tight in the chassis at first. I had to face an axle to a razor edge. Then inserted it several times into the cluster shaft holes until it shaved enough material to spin freely. Then re-assembled the chassis with the new home made cluster shaft.

   

Wow! What a difference this made! The car runs smooth and silent down the track now. It went from the noisiest to one of the quietest chassis I have with this one small change. You can see that the gears sit closer together. A lot of the backlash is gone. The car picked up speed. This was well worth NOT throwing the axle cut-off in the garbage. 

   

The Vega is sitting in paint stripper tonight to eventually get turned into eye-candy now that the chassis runs so well. To my eye, black doesn't suit that car.