Front wheel won
 

I have been swapping parts from one bike to another in an effort to make a 15 year old Eddy Merckx road bike into a fixed gear bike.
When I put the front wheel of my old track bike in the drop outs and tighten the bolts, the wheel falls out. It is an old Mallard large flange hub with an ordinary axel--no quick release. One guy at the LBS says the axel is too big for the drop outs, another (at the same store) says the axel is too small. What gives?
They both tell me that the hub can not be converted to quick release. Is this true?

Have you looked yourself to see why it's falling out? I mean, nutted hub retension is pretty basic. The forkends are gripped between the outside and inside nut surfaces. Tighten until nothing moves. Maybe it's too large, I could see it not being able to seat deeply enough to get enough of the end under the nut (don't even!). Too small shoudn't be a problem with retension, at least initially, though it could shift under load which woud be disconcerting at least.

You could always braze in new fork ends, which would kinda suck, or get a new fork which might also kinda suck. Or you can probably replace the axle. Without know the hub for sure, it's hard to say with what, but you typically just unthread the entire axle through the hub body and thread in a new QR axle.

Finally, is the hub actually spaced properly for your front fork? I was talking to a guy once who had some Olympic TT frame that was something silly like 86mm up front and ended up having to mill a hub for it. Most track and road front hubs are spaced 100mm, but you never know.

agree with bt...

my guess is hub spacing.

dont understand why the LBS would think the axle is too big...unless the threading on the axle terminates outside the fork. which i doubt.

also unless the hub/axle is something crazily unconventional, you should also have no problems replacing it with a QR.

Your LBS guys have obviously been smoking something. This is no rocket science. Take a good close look at your setup and tell us what YOU think is going on.

I thought any axle could be pulled for QR. ( hex out are nice, no lever. )

I would think a too large axle you would notice as you'ld have to press the axle in.

Sounds too small, spacers theaded on both sides? You could try to measure to find how much.

I have a 140 mm rear axle on my mtb, got a few spacers. 142 with axle in. Weird.

Get several spacers of the smaller size, then stack to match the fork spacing..???

If the axle is solid, which apparently it is, you can't just stick a quick release in it. On the other hand, if the axle is standard diameter and threading, it is not a big deal to replace it with a hollow axle so you can use a quick release.

If the axle fits in the dropouts it is obviously not too large. Too small should be irrelevant since the fork is clamped between the axle nut on the outside and the cone locknut on the inside.

If the wheel falls out, obviously something is preventing the nut from applying sufficient clamping pressure. Is there a bushing on the axle or something that is holding the nut away from the fork?

The only thing that makes this complicated is that it is so stupidly simple it is hard to imagine what could be causing the problem. As someone earlier said, this is not rocket science.

I have an old Maillard high flange front hub that IS quick release. As far as swapping out parts, well I went to my lbs that is good looking to rebuild it. They looked it over and determined that the axel is a non standard diameter. Is yours too big to go into the drops properly ( I mean too large a diameter, not too long)? The axel also is a different thread pitch and the cones have lower shoulders. The only thing they could sell me were new balls and they are 3/32".