C4 4 Lobe Wiggle

I have an older generation C4 #4 which has a significant lobe wiggle and play. I have never fallen on it, but have hung it countless times. I have replaced the trigger wires last fall and the other day was out climbing and while leap frogging my gear, I noticed that I couldn't move my cam and that the trigger wires were broken again. I was finally able to clean the cam without trigger wires and noticed that the lobes have a lot of play in the axles. I am attaching a few pictures to demonstrate. I am wondering if this kind of movement is normal or if the cam should be retired. All of my cams have a slight movement, but none move this much.
Thank you,
-Joshua

Started this thread last September: mountainproject.com/v/whats…

tl;dr it's normal. Thought it was strange too.

The only thing that seems weird about this to me is that you managed to break new trigger wires in less than a year.

The wiggle is normal and specifically designed this way. I think in the larger cams have have more wiggle so it is more noticeable.

Thank you for getting back to me so quickly. I think I understand what everyone is getting out, but the problem I am having is not that the four lobes are centered properly. That isn't really the 'floating' I am talking about. The two middle lobes seem to be centered properly, but the outside two lobes don't stay parallel compared to the inner two lobes. I have a new C4 and those lobes stay parallel. It seems to me that since the outer two lobes are 'wonky' and move back and forth that the cam isn't as stable as it should be. I am attaching a link of a video clip I shot that I placed on my dropbox.
dropbox.com/s/iux9962tqop8e…

gavinsmith wrote:Started this thread last September: mountainproject.com/v/whats… tl;dr it's normal. Thought it was strange too.

Its fine. Nothing is wrong with it. Those Camalot

(They are last generation Camalots. C4s are only the recent ones)

Looks borked. I'll take it to make sure you stay safe.

There is definitely more play in your older cam, but to echo others on here it's nothing to worry about. At worst you could have a bent lobe or axel, but honestly neither is going to kill you.

One of the failure modes that occurs in cams is due to repeated loading. The steel axle wiggles and deforms the aluminum cam lobe. The more they wiggle, the more torque will be exerted the next time, and the more the aluminum is deformed. (You can demonstrate proof of concept with a pencil in putty.) A little wiggle is good because it allows the cams to seat on the rock if the crack is not parallel. Too much wiggle will permit enough torque on the cam lobe to bend it when the force is not applied along the cam shaft; when the cam lobe crumples, the cam is unlikely to remain in the rock. Narrow, large radius cams (like the old #4 camalot) are particularly susceptable.

After seeing the video, honestly, I would retire that cam. It seems borderline, but I'd rather retire it before it goes over the line.

Sort of the equivalent of a rope where you can just barely see a little of the core if you push the sheath strands apart where it's worn.

GO