Need help with front axle QR length on mountain bike.

[johns811]

Hi, new to forum, Possibly somebody could help me. I've googled my brains out looking for a solution.

I was given a mongoose switchback 26" bike with a missing front wheel. I thought I could simply pop off the wheel from my diamondback mountain bike and put in the mongoose for a test ride but even with the quick connect skewer all the way loose the axle is about 1/4 to 1/2" too short. The fork slot metal on the mongoose is like 1/4" thick (much thicker than my diamondback). The distance between the inner fork is the same on both forks about 4" which I assume this would be 100mm QR axle but I can't undo the QR enough to get the axle in the groove and screw it back on. The axle doesn't stick out beyond the thick fork metal slot. Can I buy I longer axle? Is it possible get the wheel to work with both bikes using a spacers on the diamondback with a longer axle. If I got a long axle I imagine I would need a longer QR skewer? I thought a quick google search would give me an answer but I keep coming up empty. Looking for help! Thanks.

 

[Ajax Bay]

If the Mongoose has a distance between dropouts of 100mm (which from your text is seems to - about 4") then the wheel from your Diamondback will slot in OK. There should be about 4mm of axle showing at each end (ie outside the locknuts). The thickness of the fork dropouts on the Mongoose are (say) 7mm. I'm surprised the current QR isn't long enough (but see below).

The axle doesn't stick out beyond the thick fork metal slot. Can I buy I longer axle? . . . [or] need a longer QR skewer?

The axle MUSTN'T "stick out beyond the thick fork metal slot(s)" otherwise the QR will not work. You just need a 110mm QR skewer - which is 10mm longer than the one you've got: the thread will poke out a bit when correctly tightened.

 

[johns811]

Great, that would probably do it. For some reason I was stuck on the axle not being long enough. Much appreciated!!!!! Thank you.

If the Mongoose has a distance between dropouts of 100mm (which from your text is seems to - about 4") then the wheel from your Diamondback will slot in OK. There should be about 4mm of axle showing at each end (ie outside the locknuts). The thickness of the fork dropouts on the Mongoose are (say) 7mm. I'm surprised the current QR isn't long enough (but see below).

The axle MUSTN'T "stick out beyond the thick fork metal slot(s)" otherwise the QR will not work. You just need a 110mm QR skewer - which is 10mm longer than the one you've got: the thread will poke out a bit when correctly tightened.