Plastic shock ends are wallered out on revo 3.3

[corneileous]

Just noticed I had a lot of play in pretty much all four of my shocks, some being worse than others, where the shocks and the rocker arms come together. I don’t race my truck nor do I bash it all that hard but there’s quite a bit of slack in most of them. Even a little bit of slack on the other end where they attach to the chassis with most of being on the rocker end.

I’m assuming my much stiffer springs and 50w shock oil might be contributors but where can find some stronger aluminum rod ends and shock caps? Thanks.

 

[tntpoof]

Have you even done A internet search found 1.6 millions post thru bing theres many on Ebay...I switch all my 6 rigs to aluminum many years ago..(ebay has some now 4 about 45$ all 4)

 

[corneileous]

I have. But I don’t know what’s good and what ain’t! Just looking for recommendations. Sure, there’s a bunch to choose from, that is for sure but what’s junk and what’s good????

 

[tntpoof]

I always like Hot racing add ons.Id pick or try the ones by citysupermarket.
4 BIG BORE ALUMINUM SHOCKS for Traxxas Revo 2.5/3.3 Silver !!

 

[corneileous]

I found these... even asked the seller a few questions about them but how are these?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/283004231737

 

[olds97_lss]

I just live with the slop in the caps, but I change out the ends as they wear/stretch. I also run shock limiter cables on my ERBEv2 on the rear so they don't get ripped off the shocks due to over extension in a crash. I don't jump my nitro's nearly as high or far as my electric, so I don't run into the issue as much on those.

The newest version of the shock ends are thicker than they used to be since the ERBE 2.0 came out. Pretty sure they have the same part number though, so until all the old stock is gone, it's likely a luck of the draw as to what you get when you order new ends.

I don't run alloy ends. Tried that back in the day on my nitros and after snapping 2 shock ends off... I decided they weren't for me. Easier replacing a shock end vs replacing the shock shaft.

 

[corneileous]

I just live with the slop in the caps, but I change out the ends as they wear/stretch. I also run shock limiter cables on my ERBEv2 on the rear so they don't get ripped off the shocks due to over extension in a crash. I don't jump my nitro's nearly as high or far as my electric, so I don't run into the issue as much on those.

The newest version of the shock ends are thicker than they used to be since the ERBE 2.0 came out. Pretty sure they have the same part number though, so until all the old stock is gone, it's likely a luck of the draw as to what you get when you order new ends.

I don't run alloy ends. Tried that back in the day on my nitros and after snapping 2 shock ends off... I decided they weren't for me. Easier replacing a shock end vs replacing the shock shaft.

I went ahead and ordered me a set of the Hot Racing shocks. Hopefully they work good with the chassis end being all aluminum. I just called Hobby Ect where they’re coming from and the guy said the rocker arm ends are plastic so hopefully they hold up better than the Traxxas plastic ones. I would sure hope they would considering the fact that the guy told me that the chrome springs that come with these shocks are even stiffer than the heaviest black springs that you can get from Traxxas. He said the blue springs that come pre-mounted to the shocks are about the a middle between the gold Traxxas springs and the tan springs which are what I’ve got currently on the back of my truck as it is.
I went ahead also and got the aluminum rocker ends for my original GTR shocks from hot racing and I also got the same aluminum bleeder caps from hot racing also to go on my old shocks.
But what springs do you use on yours and what weight oil do you use? I guess I’m just kind of trying to figure out why you broke your shock rod with that aluminum heim joint on the end. Obviously my stock shocks don’t like the tan springs in back along with the 60w shock oil because it wasn’t all that long ago when I upgraded them to that and I haven’t been all that rough on the truck.
But where do you find these limiter straps you’re talking about and how do they go on?
https://hot-racing.com/?partnumber=RVO128X06;c=205

 

[olds97_lss]

Over compression during a crash is the best I can figure. It was a long long time ago when all I ran were nitro revo's. I had New Era alloy rod ends on tini coated shafts.

I run alloy rockers on all 3 of my revos. Got tired of breaking those. Just wish lunsford still made the titanium posts as I still bend those on a regular basis.

I run blue/silver springs on one nitro revo and blue/purple on the other nitro revo with RC Raven dual rates on my ERBEv2. I have the vdk pistons in all of them. No clue what oil I'm running in the nitro revo's, been too long, vdk #2 and probably 60-70wt oil.

On the ERBE, I run vdk #2 on the rear with 60wt and vdk #3 on the front with 70wt. I was running vdk #2/60 on both, but I busted a front piston and oonly had the #3's on hand, so I increased the oil to compensate for the larger holes. I like how it drives in general and if I drove the nitro's much, I'd change them both to have the same setup as it does really well for me.

 

[corneileous]

Over compression during a crash is the best I can figure. It was a long long time ago when all I ran were nitro revo's. I had New Era alloy rod ends on tini coated shafts.

I run alloy rockers on all 3 of my revos. Got tired of breaking those. Just wish lunsford still made the titanium posts as I still bend those on a regular basis.

I run blue/silver springs on one nitro revo and blue/purple on the other nitro revo with RC Raven dual rates on my ERBEv2. I have the vdk pistons in all of them. No clue what oil I'm running in the nitro revo's, been too long, vdk #2 and probably 60-70wt oil.

On the ERBE, I run vdk #2 on the rear with 60wt and vdk #3 on the front with 70wt. I was running vdk #2/60 on both, but I busted a front piston and oonly had the #3's on hand, so I increased the oil to compensate for the larger holes. I like how it drives in general and if I drove the nitro's much, I'd change them both to have the same setup as it does really well for me.

I haven’t broke any rockers yet but I do have a set of I guess the new updated adjustable rockers from hot racing on their way to me. I went ahead and ordered a set because without investigating the slack I mentioned I had, I figured the plastic rockers was the culprit.... but i do like that the new rockers are adjustable to the P1, P2 and P3 plastic rockers depending on which mounting location holes you use.

 

[olds97_lss]

I haven’t broke any rockers yet but I do have a set of I guess the new updated adjustable rockers from hot racing on their way to me. I went ahead and ordered a set because without investigating the slack I mentioned I had, I figured the plastic rockers was the culprit.... but i do like that the new rockers are adjustable to the P1, P2 and P3 plastic rockers depending on which mounting location holes you use.

They don't fit well, but can be made to work. Out of all the alloy aftermarket rockers I've bought, only one bolted on without any extra shimming needed. I've had 16 or 20 of them over the years. All but like one set required crush spacers be made to put between the bearings or when you tightened down the pivot screw, it crushes the bearings from the side, then they don't move properly and die after a short time. I just use the inner races of old bearings and a few shims to make up the difference vs stacking 100 shims in there.

I've had atomik, 2 styles of hot racing, 2 versions of integy. Only one pair of the integy's didn't require shimming like that.

The first set I did, I dremeled out the bearing stay inside the stupid rocker. It was a pain in the ass. Then I came up with the idea of using old bearing inner races and a couple shims. Way less annoying. I keep old bearings in a bag for things like that. Just cut the outside race with a dremel or bolt cutters (usually a dremel as they are very hard and prone to damaging cutters), then pry it and the guts fall out. Then you have a 4mm wide shim that fits perfectly and can take a lot of compression while not being deformed when you tighten down the screw.

 

[corneileous]

They don't fit well, but can be made to work. Out of all the alloy aftermarket rockers I've bought, only one bolted on without any extra shimming needed. I've had 16 or 20 of them over the years. All but like one set required crush spacers be made to put between the bearings or when you tightened down the pivot screw, it crushes the bearings from the side, then they don't move properly and die after a short time. I just use the inner races of old bearings and a few shims to make up the difference vs stacking 100 shims in there.

I've had atomik, 2 styles of hot racing, 2 versions of integy. Only one pair of the integy's didn't require shimming like that.

The first set I did, I dremeled out the bearing stay inside the stupid rocker. It was a pain in the ass. Then I came up with the idea of using old bearing inner races and a couple shims. Way less annoying. I keep old bearings in a bag for things like that. Just cut the outside race with a dremel or bolt cutters (usually a dremel as they are very hard and prone to damaging cutters), then pry it and the guts fall out. Then you have a 4mm wide shim that fits perfectly and can take a lot of compression while not being deformed when you tighten down the screw.

Wow, that’s a bunch of crap. I sure hope I don’t have to do that with the ones I bought which look like the newer version to the ones you got which I’m assuming these below are what you have, right?

https://hot-racing.com/?partnumber=RVO2708MR;c=205
These below are what I got which I’m hoping to be the case because if those above are what you have, to my knowledge that’s the older style.
https://hot-racing.com/?partnumber=RVO27TF06;c=205

 

[olds97_lss]

Post up how those hold up. I got the ones I got because I was afraid the newer ones would be too weak and would bend/twist. I don't really care for the non-captured ones as it is, but at the time, I couldn't find P2 integy's as they were the only ones around that capture the ball end like stock. That's a ton of force for a non-captured screw to deal with. I also drilled my threads out and used a locknut just assuming the screw is going to snap off at some point and I didn't want to deal with trying to remove the stump.

 

[corneileous]

Post up how those hold up. I got the ones I got because I was afraid the newer ones would be too weak and would bend/twist. I don't really care for the non-captured ones as it is, but at the time, I couldn't find P2 integy's as they were the only ones around that capture the ball end like stock. That's a ton of force for a non-captured screw to deal with. I also drilled my threads out and used a locknut just assuming the screw is going to snap off at some point and I didn't want to deal with trying to remove the stump.

Well, I noticed an issue with my new rockers.... they fit and work just fine until you tighten the screws on top that holds them in place.... what’s the deal with that? As long as I leave the top screws fairly loose, the pivot nice and free but if I try to tighten them down, they bind pretty bad. Should I be making a call to the hobby shop I bought them from?

 

[corneileous]

Oh, and I noticed that to match the P2 rockers, the shock ends and the pushrod ends will have to be attached to the outer-most holes in the new rockers. I guess I don’t know how the P1 and P3 rockers are but aren’t these new HR rockers supposed to give me the ability to have pretty much all three rockers in one? It doesn’t really matter because so far, the P2 rockers is all I’m interested in using but what’s essentially changing if I was to start using the innermost hole on the shock end and then start moving inward to the next holes on the pushrod end?

 

[olds97_lss]

Well, I noticed an issue with my new rockers.... they fit and work just fine until you tighten the screws on top that holds them in place.... what’s the deal with that? As long as I leave the top screws fairly loose, the pivot nice and free but if I try to tighten them down, they bind pretty bad. Should I be making a call to the hobby shop I bought them from?

Yeah, that's the issue I've had with almost all aftermarket rockers that I explained up above, which is why I put in the crush spacers/shims.

 

[corneileous]

Yeah, that's the issue I've had with almost all aftermarket rockers that I explained up above, which is why I put in the crush spacers/shims.

Damn, I don’t know if I wanna get into that. I may be calling this guy up and asking to arrange a refund. I don’t feel I should have to be tearing apart old bearings to use as shims just to use these rockers and be able to tighten them down properly to keep them from binding. Or well, I’d have to look to see which bearings HR sells that would be equivalent to the factory bearings for the factory rockers but could this be something that would correct it without having to make shims?

 

[olds97_lss]

You could buy shims. Other than that, not much you can do.

 

[corneileous]

You could buy shims. Other than that, not much you can do.

Well, I did call the hobby shop up that sold me the rockers and he’s going to send me some shims to use because essentially what’s going on apparently is the new rockers are a little bit taller than the plastic rockers and what’s happening is the screw is tightening up against the bearing rather than only tightening up against the rocker post. In other words, it’s like the rocker arm post all the sudden isn’t tall enough anymore.
Yeah I know, you probably know that, this is just me wrapping my mind around it and figuring the issue out in my head...lol.

 

[olds97_lss]

Yep. They don't mill the bearing rest down far enough inside, so all you can do is put a crush spacer in there so when you tighten it down, it's locking down on the center of the bearings against the crush spacer.

 

[corneileous]

Yep. They don't mill the bearing rest down far enough inside, so all you can do is put a crush spacer in there so when you tighten it down, it's locking down on the center of the bearings against the crush spacer.

I guess I’m just not seeing how to correct this as easy as I thought I was. But at least I do recognize that what my problem is, is that with the new rocker arms, my rocker arm posts all the sudden too short… That’s the reason why when I go to tighten that top screw down, the bottom of the screw is tightening down against the bearing which is put too much pressure on it and the whole rocker arm assembly rather than actually screwing down tight to the top of the rocker arm posts with a very minimal amount of pressure on the new rocker arms and the bearings. So needless to say, I don’t see how putting a washer or a crush washer or whatever in between the bottom of the new rocker arm and the top of the bottom pivot bearing because wont that just make the rocker arm be even taller than the post? I even thought about unscrewing the rocker arm post and putting a washer in between the bottom of the post and the car but then I quickly realized that would put me right back at square one because all I’m doing at that point is just moving everything up.

It seems to me that my only option is to either a, use my Dremel and that special drum-shaped cutting bi that has hardened steel cutting teeth both on the sides and on the bottom of it and essentially mill out a little bit of material at the bottom of the rocker arm so that the bearing on the bottom goes essentially further down... or should I say further up into the rocker arm a little bit more to bring the whole rocker arm down or B, try to find some teeny tiny little washer that’ll only make contact between the top screw an the top of the rocker arm post so that it only tightens up against the rocker arm post instead of tightening up on the rocker and the rocker bearings…

Bthe only problem I see with Dremelling out the bottom of the bearing seat on the bottom of the rocker arm is will I run into possible corrosion seizing issues from that steel bearing to the aluminum rocker when I have to mill away that special anodized coating? Whether or not that anodized coding actually insulates the aluminum from the steel bearing or not, my only concern with going that route is that I don’t have any way to be 100% precise and only take away a certain amount of material because I’d have to do all that by hand. Now if I had a special kind a jig or some kind of a CNC machine or even a tiny little lathe or whatever that I could be absolute precise with, I could see going that route but I don’t have any of that stuff.

I don’t know, like I said, I may just have to wait and see what kind of shims this guy at this hobby shop sends me before I try to figure anything else out.