C4 #5 Axle Replacement

First step seems to be to grind off the rivets and see if you can remove the axle without doing even more damage to the cam. I don’t know how a C4 is assembled but I imagine once you get it apart it will be obvious rather quickly whether the design will allow any practical attempt at repair.

Also helpful to the thread would be some information on what tooling you have available. Do you have access to a metal lathe or are you limited to the McMaster catalog and hardware store?

Just a thought, but is there some kind of mechanical spreader device, like a miniature car jack, that you could put between the lobes and bend it back? Maybe even make one with a nut, bolt, and some kind of coupler? Since the initial impact with the ground didn't seem to bend the lobe, but instead bend the axles, it stands to reason you could reverse it without too much risk to the lobes. I found this online, but I doubt it would give you enough mechanical advantage to bend the two axles back. https://weldingsupply.com/cgi-bin/einstein.pl?PNUM::1:UNDEF:X:PE6

that doesn't look as bad as my #4.  the lobes on my #4 lightly caress each other, each time they pass.  kind of romantic actually...

I don’t have a lathe.

I am afraid to use the lobes to bend the axles. I don’t want to the lobes to bend.

I actually have a #5 that has a couple of seriously wonky lobes but straight axles that I might could send you to aid you in your quest for answers.  You know, for science.  Or for the children?

Won’t somebody think of the children?

At the risk of suggesting something dumb ...

Is there any chance the lobes are seated on the axle through a bushing? And they’ve simply become misaligned while the axle remains unbent?

Just surprised that a key structural member (the axle) could bend from impacting the ground.

Are you sure you didn't drive over that thing with your car?

jt newgardwrote:

At the risk of suggesting something dumb ...

Is there any chance the lobes are seated on the axle through a bushing? And they’ve simply become misaligned while the axle remains unbent?

Just surprised that a key structural member (the axle) could bend from impacting the ground.

Doesn’t look like bushings. Aluminum lobes on a steel axle, nothing in between that I can see.

Kristian Solemwrote:

Are you sure you didn't drive over that thing with your car?

Pretty sure. But I don’t remember noticing until sorting out a few days after the climb. Either way they’re bent.