All, especially Tony,
thanks for all the help and comments.
Yesterday night I replaced the AE blocks with Losi's 0 degree blocks. Although close to perfect, it still is a little off. I will replace the R+X+Y block by a new one and assemble it carefully on the chassis in order to get it 100% symmetrical.
After more fiddling with the 4-scale board, I finally got it right. 370g-370g rear and 355g-350g front. In order to get to this stage, I put the car on a working stand (wheels in the air, suspension fully extended) ,unscrewed all shock collars, screwed them back, each of them separately until they touch their respective springs. At this step, the scales show 400-340 rear and 375-330 front (FL-RR heavy diagonal). Using the traditional "trial&error" method, I ended up with one extra turn on the RR and a half extra turn on th FL spring. Miracle, I now am at the magically symmetrycal balance described above. However...
...the car still pulls to the right when accelerating and to the left when braking. My side-by-side (not split) batteries are nicely loose in their slot, and I'm pretty sure I'm tightening the motor clamp just as required since I went to the scales after every motor change (which happened a couple of times in the evening) and they showed ok balance. The asymmetry was getting more and more obvious through the evening after I switched to a 10x3 motor. At this stage, torque is so strong (remember I ran rubbers, and no sauce) than the car requires full concentration not to accelerate and brake sideways (especially the braking part). I also used the hudy setup tool a couple of times in the evening just to be sure, but everything was still ok from that standpoint.
I'll work again on these problems next Tuesday and let you know. In the meantime, I welcome any sensible advice... I just hope in the menatime that the track layout next saturday will be mostly left turns. At least, the car turns very nicely in that direction!
Thanks,
Paul
