Congrats on the SC10RS. In no particular order:
Get the RPM ball cups. I use the stock turnbuckles and yes, I have to occasionally bend one back into shape after a race, but it isn't a critical thing quite yet. Certainly if you have the dough, upgrade. But at least get cups right away. Stock ones pop off if you look at them funny.
Get a bumper/brace either from T-Bone racing (what I have), RPM, or custom make one out of aluminum or something. Do this before going racing or bashing heavily.
Not immediately, get steering bearings sometime when you can. After a few race days or whatever. Definitely go through the car with the manual in hand, and tighten things here and there. My RS needed a lot of that, but it wasn't bad. The rest of the slop is just a trait of the SC10. It doesn't stop you from winning races.
If racing, get smaller pinions as the 3300 motor is geared too high and too hot as-is. A 17t is good, though expect the motor to still get quite hot. Seems like part of what this motor is all about... like 170+ deg after 10min.
Maybe get the RPM arms front and rear sometime soon. I have slowly given my spare stock arms away to fellow racers as they broke them, and my RPM arms are still in perfect condition.
Tighten the slipper out of the box. Simple but important.
If the diff starts making funny sounds (gear diff), add shims to the sun gears and rebuild w/ fluid. That happened to me very early in ownership...like pack #2.
Be VERY sure you have shims after the rear bearings but before the roll pin. For some reason my truck didn't have them, I didn't notice it, and I ruined wheels due to the hex wobbling in the wheel. Bad thing! Watch out on yours.
The stock servo sucks. The slop is worse when your stock servo can't even steer straight. Upgrade ASAP. Also, small RPM cups on the servo rod can reduce slop.
Hmm..that's it for now, enjoy the truck and later on get fluids for shocks and diff, and different spring kits to try different things. Setup sheets on Associated's website are a good starting point.
Originally Posted by
foreunder
I picked up my first SC10 this week. I really wanted to get the FT but my local hobby store was out of them so I decided that for the money I would get an RS and upgrade some of the parts. For a RTR option the truck is OK with one major exception, the play in the front end. There is a fair amount of play in the front end and there is no way for the truck to be truly stable with that much slop. It sounds like this is a common problem and I wish AE would have corrected it to begin with but they didn't. I have read about a few different ways to correct the problem, here are the most common:
1. Replace the bushings with bearings.
2. Replace all of the ball cups with RPM ball cups.
3. Add o-rings to the ball studs.
4. Remove the e-clip on the front axles and place one shim behind it.
5. Replace the front axles with the inline axles (not sure what all the different parts are that need replace with that option).
Anyway, I am looking for feedback on what actually works and what doesn't. Should I be doing one or two of these things or do I need to do them all to correct the problem, etc.
Any feedback you can provide would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.