AE Shock mods.... pasted from B4.1 thread...
 

After doing a lot of reading and testing, I came across something I thought I would share with you guys to make your day.
The center bushings in the AE shocks cause the shock to bind. We have discussed this in this forum. I found it doesn't just do this when the shock is at full extension, but it also does this when the shock has to change direction.

The bushing is 3.6+ mm thick. I found that if you sand it down to 3.45 mm and then slightly break the inner sharp edges (edges on the shaft) with a body reamer, you can make the shocks much more consistent.

The end cap on the bottom of the shock is a little tight as well. Again... just simply taking a body reamer to the inner edges relieves this as well.

Your shocks will build better and you will be able to match rebound as well.

The on track performance is significant.

Have fun!
TEX

I run a gear diff....
 

I love the gear diff. I put 3000 in for my SC10 and run 2000 in my B4. I have not found any reason to change back to a ball diff. Everyone that picks up my car ask how often I rebuild my diffs because they are always spot on. I don't have to rebuild them and have not found any reason to move away from using them.
If Cav or Maifield kick my rear end... I highly doubt it would be because of the ball diff they are using. I'm old and slow!
The gear diff just makes these classes very relaxing to race in.

Gear diffs.
Lipo batteries.
Brushless motors.

Now we just race.
My 2 cents.
TEX
:tire:

The batteries in it are rechargeable and it shows full power on the transmitter. I have never heard a transmitter beep continually like this one does though. I just waterproofed my electronics with liquid electrical tape though if that would have anything to do with it.

I agree with you 100% there Craig! I decided to replace the thrust balls in my diff with ceramic balls that I bought from the guy in your link, and it made a WORLD of difference. My ball diff has never felt better! Amazing how 5 little thrust balls can make it that much smoother and reliable.

And if anyone if looking to switch to ceramic balls, you DEFINITELY should check out the link up above that Craig posted... they are excellent balls, at a truly unbeatable price (and "no", he didn't pay me to say that :D )

Just an idea, I'm sure it's wrong, but just a thought. You say your running a rechargeable battery in your transmitter? Well, my transmitter is an Airtronics MX-3X, and runs off 4 AA batteries when you get it from the factory. However, I decided I wanted to run a 2S LiPo in it. So, I got a LiPo and stuck it in there, and upon turning it on... it wouldn't stop beeping over and over (and the battery indicator was at full power). After about 30mins. of trying to figure it out, I realized I had to switch the transmitter from "4V cutoff mode" (used when running 4 AA batteries)... to the "8v cutoff mode" (used when running a 2S LiPo in it). Then, next time I turned it on, it knew I was running a LiPo and not a 4AA battery pack, and never beeped again. Does this sound like a situation similar to you??? If not, what type of transmitter are you using and what type of battery is in it?

I switched to gear diff on all my cars/trucks that I was able to with.
I ran a ball diff in my B4.1 than a gear diff. wasn't able to feel any advantage over the ball. I put some Ofna 3k diff oil in the gear and off I went. works just fine. I have ran my fastest laps with it.

I just got sick of the always needing to adjust it or rebuild it, making sure it doesn't slip.

I have reinstalled a Ball diff just to see how it felt now. I went back to the gear diff. just fits me better I guess., just my opinion

Ball diff, gear diff....I believe it's situational on the track type and personal driving styles. If you check the AE setups you will notice some guys are running gear diff's with good results.
From my short time running Short Course trucks I've noticed a bit of difference in the diff's. Now, this is just my experience with the two diff's and no setup changes were changed other than the diff.

Gear diff = Worked really well on high bite tracks where traction is good. I got great steering while on the throttle and it had no problems with side traction or forward bite. The problem for me is, that's not the type of dirt at my closest track. It's clay with OK traction when wet, but once it dries out it's slippery. When I try to get on the throttle mid turn with the gear diff, it would loose traction and spin out fast and forward bite was not so great as it wanted to fish tail on the straits. I did try different diff oils, but results for me were the same.

Ball diff = Worked really well on medium to low traction type dirt (did not drive it on the high bite track). I was able to get on the throttle more aggressively coming out of corners and it stopped spinning out and fish tailing. Which was great for my local track. The one negative I noticed was that I lost mid corner steering while on the throttle. So I had to drive it harder into the corner and square up before I got on the gas or feather the throttle through the corner.

I'm going to make some chassis adjustments to regain some of the on-power steering while keeping the ball diff as I preferred it in this truck. Which is a bummer for me since I'm a gear diff guy from my 1/8th scale days and tons of diff oils to choose from.
This is just my interpretation and experiences as I'm not a Mechanical engineer (just a career Mechanic by trade) and know the design philosophy behind the gear diff vs. ball diff.


On a second note:
The word around the water cooler(track) was to use carbide balls in the diff and ceramic on the thrust bolt. Yes the ceramic bearings will last longer than the carbide but were more susceptible to slipping because of the hardness and low friction. But worked fantastic on the thrust bolt.
I can see this have some kind of truth to it as I used ceramic bearings (17+ years) at work (which are water lubricated and impervious to harsh chemicals) and the reason we use ceramic bearings is because of the hardness and low friction. Which makes them very dependable.
Do any of you notice them slipping and have to tighten them a bit more than the carbide?

Good info right there. With that all being said. I am going to try out the Ball diff again tomorrow night in the Buggy., my SC10 has no problem with traction. it grips and moves. the Buggy has traction but it does have a hard time getting it right out of the corner.

Just a quick question... I noticed after doing the JConcepts 12mm hex conversion and buying JConcepts 12mm hex wheels with BarCodes on em, it seems as if my tires stick out a bit more from the Pro Line Pro 2 Silverado body. They almost get stuck in the body when I push down on the rear suspension.

Did I buy the wrong flipping wheels?

Thats what it sounds like, the offset of the rims seem to be different than what you need to run with the hexes on the SC10

I run the jconcepts hexes on my truck with jconcpets hazard rims with no problems. It's right at the ROAR legal limit. Can you post a pic?
The hazard rims have a 3mm off set so they will stick out farther than the stock rims.

~But not so far as to hinder the body. I run them myself with the jconcept hexes.

I dont have a pic at my office but will try and take one when I get home. I bought the slash wheels but it was my undestanding that all hex style wheels will now work on the SC10 with the conversion.

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I love my factory team sc10, wouldnt buy anything else, havent broken a part yet.

No, different trucks need different offset wheels. After the hex conversion, you can run the SC10RS/SC104x4 wheels, wheels for the Losi SCTE, or the Proline wheels for the ProTrac conversion. The offset on the regular Slash wheels make it too wide.