R34 in ruins!

I need some serious help here.. I pretty much ruined my R34 model while attaching the wheels. Everything assembled with no problem and I get to step 7, attaching the wheels. I start to push the front one in and it just wont seem to go in, it feels like something is blocking it, so I apply a little pressure and then *SNAP* something breaks. :eek: The odd thing is I can't figure out what but now the "steering" won't move smoothly at all. The same thing happens on the other front wheel, and niether of them sit correctly even after breaking my way through. On the rear, one wheel just won't go on, the pin just doesn't go through. I've only been able to mount one wheel correctly. I'm so bummed, and not sure if I'll salvage the kit, but I'm just wondering WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED? I was so psyched about getting this kit since it's popular and I've heard pretty easy to put together. Anyone have any idea what I did wrong? Anyone have some spare parts I could use?

I'm totally depressed.. :(

I had the same problem (assuming we're talking about the Tamiya R34). The steering rod broke when i clicked the wheels in, now my Skyline has no steering :(. My suggestion would be to attach the wheels to the brakes before glueing the assembly to the chassis. Just my 2c :)

I havn't done the R34 yet(so excuse me if I have NO idea on what the parts are like!), I dont have any plans on getting it either, although I am considering to do a Mines version. Why are you stressed about the steering? its not going to be taking any corners! I think you should just deal with what happened. But about the back wheel, is the pin too big or too small to fit in the rotor on the brake? You could very carefully sand it down if it is too big, if its too small there should be a way to get it in, try superglueing it in. I hope you don't want it to have rotating wheels because at this point it doesn't sound like that could happen. What do you mean when you say the front wheels dont sit properly? are they loose, leaning in or leaning out? My stupid input is that superglue will fix everything :D

. I start to push the front one in and it just wont seem to go in, it feels like something is blocking it, so I apply a little pressure and then *SNAP* something breaks.

One way to guard against this is to lubricate the wheel pin with a tiny drop of oil, water or in my case, glue. This will help the pin go into the poly cap much easier preventing breakage as you press it in. Glue does'nt really adhere to the poly cap so if you ever want to take the wheels back off you can. Another method you can do is take a sanding file, a thin one like a nail file and sand the pin around the sides to make it smaller.:D

Tamiya's wheels tend to fit too tight in the polycaps especially if you paint the wheels with white or colored paint. Sometimes I drill out and enlarge them. If you break the tie-rod break off the pins on the spindles and drill holes where they were and make a metal tie-rod. If the struts are broke just drill them and reenforce with a pin or metal wire. Don't give up just about anything can be fixed.

as for your back wheel not wanting to fit, i can only thing of one thing, and that is you put too much glue on the back of the disc, so it just kind of found it's way(the glue) into the "hole" from the back when you stuck it on the axle. Don't give up that's a great kit. when you fix it post some pics!!;)

I have had that problem before but instead of forcing it I removed some paint off of the "pin" on the wheel and made sure the paint on the brake rotors hadn't gone in the hole (which it had) , so I cleaned that out and the wheel slid on nicely

I do two things....
A) Get a small round file that fits into the disc/polly cap and spin the file around to make the hole slightly bigger
B) Add a small amount of cooking oil to the pin before pushing it on