MAX axle questions

[team222badbrad]

I bought a 99 Max 2 for my daughter and have started replacing axle bearings. It has splined axles with set screws. Had to drill out one of them. Has anyone switched them out with stainless. They shouldn't seize and they're only keeping the sprockets alignment from side to side. Shouldn't be any shearing problems should there? Second question, front axles were bent from my son driving it like a rental. Straightened them the best I could on a press. Can you swap the fronts to the middle or rear just to get fresh ones up front. Hopefully someone with more brain cells can help me out. It was a rough New Years Eve. Thanks Mike D

They can't shear technically, but the setscrews do get beat up. The reason is that the sprockets can still slide around side to side and rotationally a bit. I did have one rear axle that had the hole completely destroyed. The hole literally went oblong and the sprocket could move side to side enough to destroy the chain and chew up the sprocket. I was able to fix the sprocket up enough to be reused, but it was still damaged.

You could use stainless setscsrews, but the sprockets are still steel.