hi guys,

need some schooling on the AE/Xeon front end.

on the king ping, what does the spacer do between the top and lower arm? is it for micro/fine tuning the ride height beside using spacer under the lower arm to get the proper ride height?

and the spacer above the top arm, it is used for adjusting spring preload?

currently trying to setup my VBC lightning12 to run outdoor and it seems i need to add tons of spacer under the lower arm to get 4.5mm front ride height

For the most part shim above steering block but below upper arm is for a arm angle and camber gain. Shim above the upper is to remove slop in the kingpin. Some guys adjust ride height with the shims but the manual will tell you not to and to adjust ride height with shims or spacers under the lower arm. Hope this helps

It's a nice idea but not practical. Different foams behave differently on the truer.

A softer foam expands more when the wheel is in motion, so you have to adjust the cutter out. A harder foam expands less so the cutter is adjusted in. Also, the depth of cut affects the final diameter. The more cut you take, the slower the wheel turns so the smaller the diameter is cut.

It's a matter of getting used to the truer and knowing where the adjuster should be for the tyres being cut. Foam is an awkward beast to cut, and getting the right diameter isn't as easy as it looks! HTH

thanks for answering, time to find more spacer to add to lower arm.

If you would like, I can do a video on front end settings and so on.

If you need really high ride height (for outdoors or when using really small tires or the combination of them both) one way is to swap the lower arms, this will make the lower ball turn upside down and will raise the car about 1mm in the front.

Sounds like he has the opposite problem.

thanks for the offering Edward, that will be great if you can explain on some of the front end setup for running outdoor. Also, your last couple video has help a lot for me.

In that case just put spacers under the front lower arm holder, there's spacers included in the kit as well as more sizes to buy.

hey guys. I was wondering anyone with a serpent would be willing to be able to do a video. I am one of a handful of guys that has one and would like to learn more about how to tune and set it up..

Nick K

Just a quick video on how to measure foam tires

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2GZq6JOcfRg

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yBKNGLUHvII

Kingpin Shim Placement.

I don't agree with that method. The tyres should be parallel to the arms of the vernier - 90deg to where you have them in your video.

Using the thin part of the arm only measures the tyre at that point, and it is easy to push into the foam giving a false reading.

Using the whole length of the vernier arm across the face of the tyre gives a more accurate reading, and allows you to see if there is any taper (fronts) or raising of the joint (rears) on your tyres.

Using the whole length of the arm also makes it easy to find the slightly larger of your 'pair' of tyres to put on the left (clockwise track) of the car when swapping tyres from side to side.

I see a lot of people doing things this way and they always end up making simple errors in tyre measurement due to the issues above. When shown the other way they all swap. HTH

Thanks for your input

I'll make a video on your aforementioned technique

For anyone watching my videos, please give me any positive criticism on the videos. If there's something not right, or you have a better technique please don't hesitate .

In the recentlly posted kingpin shimming video, the upper arm on the car that's being used for illustration is clearly too tight. In order for the front suspension to function at its best, the upper arm should pivot on its hingepin freely enough so that it will drop down just by its own weight. Possible (and typical) causes for the upper arm binding are: the hingpin itself often fits too tightly in the upper arm. Either that or else the stack of caster shims may be slightly too thick. Both are common problems on 1/12th scale cars, but thankfully both are fairly easy to address. To free up the hingpin, just run the appropriate size reamer or pin-vise drill bit thru the plastic upper arm, opening up the hingpin holes just enough to allow the hingpin itself to slide thru freely but still without any slop. To eliminate binding from the caster shims, you can rub just one of the little shims per side on an emory board or fine sandpaper to reduce it's thickness slightly. Remove only enough thickness so that the stack of caster shims can slide into place without binding the upper arm. Once the hingpin fits nice and the caster shim stack has been adjusted to yield the correct dimension, the assembled upper arm should drop nice and free, without any binding, and also without any slop or excessive play.