Accuforce mounting help

[Spinelli]

Selling my OSW Simucube 1 soon and just received an Accuforce v2. I need to remove the wheel adapter-hub thing in order to remove the carbon fibre faceplate that way I can attach the following https://www.ricmotech.com/Mounting_Bracket_for_SimLab_Heusinkveld_Chassis_p/rmt-ddaf-slabadpt.htm to the AF motor and mount it to my Simlabs cockpit. The problem is I cannot remove the adapter-hub.

I've watched the Sim Racing Garage AF v2 video and he says to just remove the screw at the side of the hub going all the through and into the motor input shaft. I have done so and the hub only comes out around 1/8 or 1/4 inch before it suddenly stops. I have tried with all my strength but it will not budge from this point on. The hub is supposed to just slide out with a bit of force.

Can anyone please help? I'm really eager to try this thing.

 

[motopreserve]

Have you emailed SimXperience directly? The owner seemed quick to respond to sone questions I had.

 

[Spinelli]

I just sent them a message via their contact-support page on their website. The hub feels like it hits a wall after the initial 1/4" or 1/8" movement.

 

[Spinelli]

The only thing I can think of is that the bolt is broken and stuck inside the input shaft but you'd think if that was the case, the hub wouldn't move at all rather than an 1/8" or so. Also, the bolt is a class 12.9 bolt which is stronger than even grade 8 bolts (grade 8 is about the same as class 10.9). This is getting frustrating...

 

[RaceNut]

I think only the bottom holes are for mounting the AccuForce bases. The bolts in the face-plate are for accessories IIRC. At least, that's the way it works on AFv1. Perhaps you could adapt your OSW mounting brackets to mount the AFv2(?)

As far as removing the wheel hub, an automotive pulley removal tool might prove useful if you have enough clearance. Still, it's best to consult with SimXperience to be sure on both counts.

 

[Spinelli]

I think only the bottom holes are for mounting the AccuForce bases. The bolts in the face-plate are for accessories IIRC. At least, that's the way it works on AFv1. Perhaps you could adapt your OSW mounting brackets to mount the AFv2(?)

As far as removing the wheel hub, an automotive pulley removal tool might prove useful if you have enough clearance. Still, it's best to consult with SimXperience to be sure on both counts.

Yes, I'm not using the faceplate to mount the wheel, I'm removing the faceplate and installing an adapter I linked to in the OP. Ricmotech sells the Accuforce without the outer shell and they make an adapter for the motor so people with Sim-Labs and Heusinkveld cockpits can mount the Accuforce motor the same way they mount other DD motors like Bodnars, Miges, Kollmorgens, etc.

 

[Spinelli]

Upon examining the adapter-hub bolt, I don't think it's snapped because the face of the end/bottom of the bolt has that slight, smooth concaveness (indentation) to it. What's weird though is when I looked inside the hole where the bolt goes in, it looked like there was something slightly red (red mark or maybe loctite?) maybe half or 3/4 of the way down. I then put the bolt back in the hub and screwed it all the way until the end, then reversed and took the bolt out, and I'm pretty sure that red mark is now lower almost as if me screwing the bolt back in to as deep as it goes also screwed whatever that is with the red mark down deeper. I'm pretty sure it's not placebo and it's deeper now than before but it could be placebo as it's not clear enough for me to be 100% sure.

Does anyone have any idea what could be happening?

 

[Furnace Inferno]

The red stuff is loctite. I took mine off to put on a 3D printed shield because one of my wheel usb cables was getting stuck under the the lip on the metal shell.

Anyway it slid off relatively easily once the bolt was out far enough so if you have taken the bolt out completely I’m not sure what the issue is.

 

[RaceNut]

Yep, looks like red Loctite (aggressive). Perhaps some residual thread-lock is interfering with the hub removal or there is a bur near the bolt hole.

What does the front of the hub/adapter look like (Shaft exposed?) Maybe a steering-wheel removal tool could work? It needs to push against the shaft though.

 

[rikirk]

@Spinelli Did you get an answer from Villers ? If I remember correctly, that is the screw you want to tighten up if the shaft get loose. Maybe Frank at Ricmotech can help you, too.

 

[Spinelli]

@Spinelli Did you get an answer from Villers ? If I remember correctly, that is the screw you want to tighten up if the shaft get loose. Maybe Frank at Ricmotech can help you, too.

Hi Rik. I got an answer from Villers. He said he can remove the hub for me if I pay for shipping to them and again back from them. By the time I do that, I'll be paying the same price as I would have if I purchased the wheel brand new so that makes no sense.

I consider this faulty (not blaming you one bit). The Accuforce is a high-end device. It's not a toy like a Logitech or Thrustmaster. It's made to be used with different hubs/adapters, rims, buttons, etc. It's made to be used in serious simracing applications. They even sell a DIY version which comes un-assembled.

Another weird thing is, that first 1/8" or 1/4" the hub pulls out before it hits a "wall"...well, the hub bolt-hole still looks perfectly centered with the shaft bolt-hole. That tells me the hub isn't actually moving one bit but rather the input shaft itself is moving out.

If I screw the hub-bolt in but stop while just the bolt's head sticks out of the adapter, the hub will be flush with the motor. However, if I screw the hub-bolt in all the way (the bolt-head not sticking out from the hub), then the hub (or input shaft) starts distancing itself from the motor ever so slowly as you screw the bolt further in. I have no idea what's going on here.

 

[rikirk]

The only thing I know is that I reached out to them when first time I got the wheel because the hub was getting loose from the shaft and they told me it was a mistake on their end and I needed to tighten up the same bolt in your picture. Never had an issue since then.

Not sure about the front mounting, it was a no-no to my understanding and I was not aware of the possibility until you sent me that link from Ricmotech, although it is actually for their mini mite rather than the original AF case.

 

[Spinelli]

The only thing I know is that I reached out to them when first time I got the wheel because the hub was getting loose from the shaft and they told me it was a mistake on their end and I needed to tighten up the same bolt in your picture. Never had an issue since then.

I think something must have happened when you tightened it. If the hub was coming loose before you further tightened it then it's strange that it doesn't come loose anymore after you did that.

It looked like there was a second bolt in the bolt hole. When I put the bolt back in and tightened it further then took it back out, that piece seemed deeper than the first time I took the bolt out. At first I thought it was the bolt that snapped but the bolt doesn't look snapped at all. Did you put some other thing in there as a sort of "stopper" to block the bolt from going too deep in order to be able to screw the bolt in tighter or some thing? Did you also put all that loctite in there?

Not sure about the front mounting, it was a no-no to my understanding and I was not aware of the possibility until you sent me that link from Ricmotech, although it is actually for their mini mite rather than the original AF case.

The Mini-mite I believe is just their name for the AF. It still comes with SimXperience's Accuforce software and the motor looks identical and probably is. It even states identical performance figures, torque, etc. I was even considering buying the SimXperience Accuforce v2 "DIY" version since it comes with the motor naked (no shroud).

By the way, you don't mount the Ricmotech adapter to the Accuforce's front carbon fibre casing - that's definitely a no-no. You just remove the front-casing and then attached the Ricmotech adapter to the motor itself, slide the hub back on and you're done.

 

[Spinelli]

Scratch what I said before about something happening after you tightened it. SimXperience and whoever else mentioned it are correct; it was the hole that SimX drilled into the input shaft that was burred.

I finally got so frustrated that I decided that if it's indeed just a burr, that some brute force would handle it with, at the most, just the burr causing a scratch to the inside of the hub's bolt-hole. I tried a few gentler tools but they wouldn't work for various reasons. My last resort was the pry-end of a hammer. I got a small, thin hammer and I was able to pry the hub out . There's just a few very shallow nicks in the back of the hub because I was an idiot and didn't think of wrapping electrical tape around the hammer's pry-end until I was around 3/4's done. It took probably 20 mins of very slow prying and turning the hub 90 or 180 degrees at a time to balance the prying - plus, I was prying gently and being careful to pry centrally relative to the input shaft - but it finally reached the end and came off.

The burr on the input shaft honestly wasn't bad at all to the touch and almost impossible to see by the naked eye but I tested the hub by sliding it back on slightly and, yup, that's the point where it would stop sliding (the input shaft's burr).

I carefully filed the burr, tested the hub again, and the hub slides in and out nicely just like Villers from SimXperience said.

Can't wait to finally test this out tonight or tomorrow.


Correction on something I said a few posts above. I said that when the hub was pulled out 1/4" or so, the hub's bolt-hole was still lined up with the input shaft's bolt-hole. I was probably not looking good (very hard to line up the light all the way in the tiny hole) because I tested that again before I started prying and the 2 holes were indeed not lined up anymore once I pulled the hub out a bit so the input shaft is definitely not loose or coming out or anything, lol.

 

[Edhalen]

Old post I know but I'm searching for answers. I just installed my V2 on my Heusinkveld GT cockpit and in doing so I realized the RJ12 connector is no longer usable on the front of the base (I didn't completely remove the faceplate to get it mounted). I guess I'm SOL will have to replace the AF V1 rim as I can't connect it to the base. Am I missing something?