Originally Posted by
John W T
Problem fixed. Some of your replies were helpful. In the end it was this (I had already covered the ground of setting the tension on the bearings so that there was just a tiny bit of play and yes, I did tighten the lock nuts against the tensioning nuts): The quick release was in the wrong way round. I didn't think it would make any difference which side the release lever was on but the guy at the local bike shop (Ashfield Cycles - the best I've found in inner west and I've tried a lot) said "no the lever should be on the opposite side to the chain". Turning it around fixed the problem. I guess the ends weren't seating properly and the QR was pulling on an angle.
Hmmm, you were actually correct in that it doesn't matter which way you have the QR, it's the tension of the stretched skewer in the middle that pulls the ends inwards. This then generates friction between the outer nuts and the drop-out face.
I would find another shop in a hurry if you got that kind of advice.
Does it matter which way you string the laces through your shoe?
When hanging a plant from ceiling-hook, does it matter which end of the rope is up?
The only "wrong way around" thing you can do with QR skewers is to have the spring reversed. With the big-end inwards, it can bind up over the axle and make it difficult to get the wheel into the dropouts evenly.