MattW

I always want the inner pins to be tight in the arms. The "pivoting" should IMHO be between the pin and the ball.

artwork

iTrader: (88)

you adjust the blocks...remember the pins can be tight on the arm as long as the bushing rotates freely inside the plastic arm mount (1 dot or 2 dot or 3 dot). You should grease the bushing that sits inside of the plastic arm mount and ensure that the hinge pins themselves move freely. If not check the shims on the arms and ensure they have enough movement to not bind the arm.

You can polish the hinge pins in a Dremel (with some very fine paste polish like gravity or mother's) but honestly I don't think they need them.

Rick Hohwart

The way our car is designed, you should use a reamer to free up the pin in the arm. The pivot ball should be tight in the insert and the pin should be tight in the ball.

artwork

iTrader: (88)

Video on the PSD shock build...hopefully this is useful.

https://youtu.be/CKh6QVMxYmA

bertrandsv87

iTrader: (2)

Everything should be polished: hinge pins, shock shaft, input shafts, axle shafts, diff/spool outdrives, layshafts, dogbones, electric motor rotor, etc...... Reducing drag as much as possible is very important...So many racers at my track with AE cars that seem stiff, and hard to control, whether tc or F1.... I use Master Formula polish on all my cars, and it made a big difference...
AE cars need as much freeness as possible to perfom....
Anybody using the Sweep STC6 body with this car ???

glennhl

iTrader: (16)

I'd like to hear from Randy Caster if he or the other team drivers polish everything? Life is too short to polish the heck out of everything, but at least Bertrand is just using a chemical polish that doesn't take too long.

But Bertrand be careful, we found out at work that you can actually polish shafts too much, then they don't retain oil and they destroy the seals in a short period of time.

VanBee

iTrader: (4)

Awesome!

Thanks for taking the time to do that.

Very helpful!

Edwin Pibal

iTrader: (1)

I have seen this first hand with shock shafts!

ed

bertrandsv87

iTrader: (2)

The Master Formula I use only for one minute at the most until I get that slippery surface feel, and then I clean the residue off with brake cleaner... No scratches left on the surfaces, and no change in item size, just better motion overall noted, specially with suspension steel ballstuds...

Eric Swanson

In my opinion, none of this is necessary. The only thing you want to be absolutely sure of is that the suspension isn't binding. This may require reaming out the arm like Rick said.

Beyond that, If you're already making inch perfect runs and want something to else to work on, polish your shock shafts.

micrors4guy

iTrader: (50)

Why are you polishing something that touches nothing? a rotor is supposed to ride on the bearings in the motor can and should not be touching anything else. polishing it would do nothing at all.

Korey Harbke

iTrader: (13)

I polish the ball studs for sure. Shock shafts are lightly polished to minimally alter the size of the shaft, but still clean up the surface a bit.

Hinge pins I leave alone and just ream/deburr the arms as needed. The glass fiber content in the plastics adds a lot of additional friction under load, and polishing the hinge pins is a really negligible gain as long as they are clean and not rusted or pitted.

I also make sure the hinge pin pivot balls are snug within the plastic insert. I usually put a small piece of plastic bag or teflon tape to take the additional slack out, and just ream the arm as needed. The arms are actually sized quite well, but just have a little flash that need to be cleaned up at the edges of the hinge pin holes. A few passes of the popular suspension arm reamers does the trick .

aracefan

iTrader: (70)

Because race-car "freeness".

C'mon, Rob.

bertrandsv87

iTrader: (2)

There is air inside your motor that will cause drag resistance....
As a matter of fact, I polished/waxed all the surfaces of my chassis to reduce air drag, including the four rims and the body(in and out)....Yes, I had alot of time in my hand, but air does cause a little drag at 30mph, and becomes an issue past 60mph....

bertrandsv87

iTrader: (2)

There is air inside your motor that will cause drag resistance....
As a matter of fact, I polished/waxed all the surfaces of my chassis to reduce drag, including the four rims and the body(in and out)....Yes, I had alot of time in my hand, but air does cause a little drag at 30mph, and becomes an issue past 60mph....
My biggest issue is finding paint that has a polished finish when dry. Most of them dry to a rough finish that needs alot of wax or Master Formula paint treatment...
It probably is not going to make me faster, but at least my conscience is at peace, knowing that I've tried everything in the book, and then some....lol...
Next test for me though is to see what difference +100% throttle expo on the TX will make on acceleration: my novak impact esc does not have a concave throttle profile, so I am forced to use my TX to get more punch....