M08

Any recommended Youtube videos or tips for building shocks? Mine are always squishy and making washing noise...

buggybattle

I found a ton of pro drivers putting out tips on building shocks on YouTube. Just search. Ty Tessmann and his dad have some good stuff along with Adam drake.

mschumi101

iTrader: (30)

I highly recommend the Tamiya shock pump, it works wonders for eliminating air bubbles.

Also recommend the Tessmann youtube videos, as stated. Lots of videos out there on youtube. Not sure what brand or scale you run, but I know Associated releases videos on how to build shocks for all their kits, just FYI.

Norse

iTrader: (43)

Patience, thus don’t rush.

Davidka

iTrader: (86)

Careful with this advice. Unless a shock is built with a volume compensation device like a bladder, it must have air in it to work. Silicone fluid isn't compressible.

For emulsion shocks, I have a bleed method that's simple and consistent. Fill a shock to the top then move the piston to release any air from under it, then check again that the shock is full. With the shaft extended all the way, put on the cap. If you have caps with bleed screws, remove it, then slowly compress the shock's shaft with a paper towel or rag over the bleed hole. Some oil should come out. With the shaft compressed all the wat, put the bleed screw back in and then pull the shaft back out. You've just added air to the shock (the lower seals aren't air tight. Put the spring on and let it rest upright & extended while you do the other one the same way.

The reason I like this method is because if the shocks are in good condition, doing it this way should introduce the same amount of air in both shocks, making them even. I find it to work pretty well.

Some guys play with pressurizing the shocks by attempting to control how much air is introduced, but I've never seen a RC shock with enough precision to hold a setting like that reliably, so it's easy to wind up with shocks that have very different pressure in a run or two. If you can make it work, more power too you, I try to keep things simple and repeatable because a whacky setting is hard for me to diagnose and figure out.

mschumi101

iTrader: (30)

Well yes, you follow that same process for building shocks, the pump only works for that initial phase, when you want to release the air from under the piston, before the shock cap is in place. Otherwise it takes many minutes waiting for those bubbles to rise through the oil. The pump pulls all that air out right away. Then go on attaching the cap/bladder and bleeding as normal.

mojo tom

What car ?

The pump is great and save some time You will start with the least amount of bubbles every time. It helped me get consistent shocks.

I ask you about you car as every brand could have some tips related to theirs shocks.

First after putting your shock oil push back and forth slowly to release air under the piston. Completed with oil to the top. Shock pump.

For 1/10th you want a dead shock (zero rebound) and not any compression while pushing the shaft inside the shock (especially at the end) so I found a couple of useful tips :
- You will have to push the shock shaft all the way down before screwing the shock top (without bleeder screw) then push slowly, put the bleeder screw, wipe excess oil and push back and forth. The shock will have some rebound at that point so from the fully compressed position the shaft will go out a little on its own.
Do not touch it, remove the bleeder, push it all the way in and put the screw back. You will need to do that 2-3 times sometimes less.

- If you go too far at some point you will want to have a perfect zero rebound so you will keep doing the bleeding process and you will introduce some air inside the shock.
To avoid that I put the spring retainer on the shaft after removing bobbles before starting the bleeding process. That way you will have zero rebound without too much air inside yet on the car with springs tous shaft could compress completely until the spring retainer touch the shock cartridge without any push from the inside compression.

You will have some air anyway, the least amount the better. After a while on the track the air inside the shock (plus air sucked from the bottom around the orings) will increase rebound so it could be useful to bleed once every shock to avoid that rebound.

Hope that could help.

a1

iTrader: (9)

i see the zero rebound and follow the instructions to get that. My question is at that point i extend the shaft and let go and the pulls 3/4 of the way back in. So zero rebound , and at full extension the shaft pull in 3/4. Is that normal?

a1

iTrader: (9)

side note , been trying to get consistent shocks for the last couple hours just to find out where the shock bushing passes through on the cap , it has microscopic holes leaking air.........

Davidka

iTrader: (86)

That is negative pressure. Put the spring on and let the shock rest at full extension. It will take on a little bit more air.

Zero rebound is technically impossible to achieve with a simple sealed emulsion shock. There needs to be some air to allow for pressure compensation of the shock shaft. When the shaft enters the shock body, that air must compress, which it will want to return from. We can get close, but there's always a compromise and you don't want so large an air volume that the shock body isn't sufficiently full of oil. That causes tthe damping to do funny things at the top of the shock's travel.

Good Tessman did a decent video explaining how he builds vented bladder shocks (vent behind bladder so the compensating air is under no pressure). That's probably the best way to do it if bladders are available for your shocks.

mojo tom

What you want is no force needed to push the shaft inside the cartridge fully compressed with as little air as possible doing so. Set up that way if you reach full extension the shaft will move back up, that's normal.

Once you have some (too much) rebound the car will bounce at landings and weight transfer from the rear to front will be les efficient at power. But bouncing is the main issue for me.

billdelong

iTrader: (33)

+1
I only run emulsion shocks in all my cars, and this is by far the easiest and most consistent method for me. I recently attended a race clinic hosted by a couple top Tekno drivers and Joe Bornhorst helped me properly build my EB410 shocks, he explained that 1/8 shocks weren't as sensitive as 1/10, and that with the EB410 shocks you need to bleed them extremely slow so you minimize the amount of fluid that is expelled out of the cap.

No more fuss with pumping the shocks 30+ times and risk pushing out too much fluid, etc...

I simply check my ride height before every run and if the car starts to increase in height, then I simply remove 1 bleeder screw at a time and slowly compress each shock while still installed in the car to bleed, replace the screw and confirm ride height is back to normal... don't get any more simple than that

bubbaslash

iTrader: (1)

Tip of the hat to Joe. He's been going out of his way to help all of the EB410 drivers in my area out. Way to represent

a1

iTrader: (9)

tip of the day , new shock caps help to be consistent.

kevin45

so how do you get zero rebound in a shock that has no bleeder screw...been struggling with a traxxas gtr shocks?