Moving from bolt-on wheel to quick release?
 

i've been helping my dad fix up an old bike. it had a bolt-on rear wheel but the front is quick-release. his rear wheel had a busted spoke and someone rode it for a long time with the broken spoke apparently and the wheel was tacoed beyond reasonable repair, 2 different LBS's said it'd be better just to get a new wheel. he wanted the new wheel to be QR too, so we had his freewheel moved to a QR wheel.

the problem is the wheel is kinda loose. when putting on QR wheels i was always told to not overtighten them, to finger-tighten the nut with the QR arm straight out and then close the QR, and the arm should leave a small indent in your palm if it is the right tension. but when I do that and then sit on the bike and start to pedal the wheel turns left and hits the frame. to get it to not do that i have to tighten the nut with the QR almost all the way open and then close it really really hard and then it is tight enough to ride without the wheel turning into the frame.

is something wrong with the wheel or is it sometimes normal to have to really really tighten a QR?

The ends of the axle are longer than the thickness of the drop outs your bolt on frame. The QR is tightening against the axle not the frame. You need to grind the axles off so the do not stick out any more than the thickness of the drop out. Roger

I concur. I never tighten QRs as much as they tell you and they never come loose... The properly-sized axle should sit just inboard of the outsides of the rear dropouts.

It sounds like you bought a new wheel - [nominally] designed for vertical dropouts - and you're putting it in a frame with horizontal dropouts.

Do check the axle length, but if that's not it:

1. Skewer may not be up to the task. Internal cam is better than external cam.
2. The "grip" surfaces on the wheel (locknuts) and/or skewer may be lacking as compared to the "old days".

Yea axle ends have to be less than flush with the out side faces of the dropout .
conic coils spring takes up some space.

Over length ? and perhaps some really grippy star washers may bite in
and take up some space.

Why doesn't the LBS that made the wheel fix the problem?

Probably a pre-built machine manufactured wheel that the shop didn't build. You bought it you fix it. Roger

rough up the inside of the dropout of the frame with sandpaper or a file so the QR have something to bite into. Like there to much paint or the dropout is to smooth for the QR to bite into.

yeah it's a pretty cheap bike so I'm sure it's a manufactured wheel. I like the ideas about the sandpaper and the washers, what size of washers should I get, I could go measure the thickness of the axle but if someone knows what it most likely is I could get some washers on the way home. Do they have that type of washer at like a Home Depot store or do you have to get them at an LBS?