I just got one in trade for building another car...I'm sure it can be made to work quite well but I'm not liking the car much. The battery hold downs are cool and the front end is nice having the caster blocks be just 1 piece instead of keeping track of 3. Where I have issues with the car is in the rear suspension. The t-plate has 1 pivot ball and bolts straight to a spacer at the front. Because the front has no pivots the tweak screws are essentially useless if you need to adjust tweak. The damper plates reduce the useable space in the pod. I'm not sure if the car I got has the stock spur gear or if the customer changed it...either way it is way too big. It has a thread on style left side hub which is nice for balance and stays on well...but it makes it harder to space out the axle to different lengths, and it's a metal rear axle.

That being said the car can be fast if built right I think...I just think there are better options out there.

How do you change ride height on front of 12L4?

In order of expense:

The kit probably came with four 1/16" spacers (washers). They work, but that's BIG steps, and only two steps at that. Free, or under a buck at the hardware store.

The CRC front ride height shims work well for the Associated arms and the IRS-modified Associated arms (worth the money just for the additional tire life). $8-9. They no longer "notch" these which makes 'em less convenient to use. Notch them yourself by cutting across to the mount screw holes from the "straight" side. You'll see what I mean if you get them. This makes it so you can insert and remove them without completely removing the lower arm mounting screws.

Fibre-lyte (UK) make an excellent carbon fibre shim set that have the coolest looking carbon...it glows. I like that they're measured in mm, IRS rear axle height adjusters, tire diameters and ride height are all measured in mm as it keeps everything on the same page. The .010" CRC shim (roughly .25mm) works excellently with the Fibre-Lyte shims giving a bit more fine-tuning ability. Probably + or - $25 for a set with shipping from the UK, cheaper if several of you order at once (they used to give a discount on orders of, like, 12 sets or so).

If you install the new IRS "lower" arms (NOT the modified Associated arms) I highly recommend the BMI aluminum spacers. The BMI spacers provide a very stable "platform" for the lower arms to ride on as they're held quite a ways above the chassis plate with full-diameter tires. They come in .5mm increments and are chamfered on the "bottom" side to clear the countersink on the lower arm mounting screws that STILL sticks through the top of 2.5mm chassis plates. I use these with the .010" CRC shims also. $60 for all six sets of these. WELL worth the money, imho, I have a couple sets I use among my cars (up to three at any given meeting).

These new IRS arms are neat because you can run the tires from full-cut until the white of the rims shows through if you want. One CRITICAL thing I've found with these arms is that you REALLY need to use a tap (8-32 RH) to thread them. I recommend doing this with any arms, but these it is very important yet they do not mention this in the instructions.

Also, DRILL into your head that ADDING shims REDUCES ride height, REMOVING shims INCREASES ride height. I guarantee you I foul that up at LEAST three times every season. I'm an embarrasment...

I use them to get these front ride height Shimz cut



Suitable for all 12th & 10th scale pan car chassis’s that run the Team Associated Dynamic Link front end suspension.

Kit comprises 3 pairs of shims each drilled with small hole for easy ID.
The single hole being the thinnest shim etc.

0.5mm
1.0mm
1.5mm

don't know what that is in imperial though

Most people in the U.S. measure ride height in metric. It's about time we started the switch...

Going metric would raise our nations IQ by 20 points. Becuase it is that much more simple to use in calculations including simple addition.

Yeah, but people get themselves all in a tizzy that they can't convert. If we change over you don't NEED to convert. It's now 300km between Seattle and Portland...doesn't freakin' matter how many miles. Folks just can't let that go though.

I ran for the first time today the Hot Bodies Cyclone 12 shock, PN 61695, and all I can say this is the nicest 1/12th scale shock I've ever used. The shock bladder is a nice feature, but its durability (thinkness of the shock shaft) is what make it a winner. This shock will replace my fleet of IRS shocks (their shafts are very thin - I honestly have four extra shocks pre-made for each race weekend) and try to sell my newly purchased, but unused, CRC shocks.

When running the Hot Bodies shock on an American made car you should use an Associated/Losi/etc ball end at the end of the shock shaft. The provided ball end used on the shock shaft were just too loose. The open ended bottom mount fits well, but I am thinking about replacing the traditional ball stud with a Xray shock pivot and a screw.

To convert to imperial you divide your metric measurement by 25.4 or you can take your metric measurement and multiply it by .03937. Both work the same.

And, roughly speaking (not even THAT roughly), you'll end up with .020", .040" and .060" respectively. Then, as I said, I throw in the .010" (roughly .25mm) CRC white shim for good "measure".

One simple way to convert to metric.
Mandate all new autos produces in the US use METRIC parts!
Then use Metric Road Signs instead of MPH.
If you are not bright enough to locate KPH on the Speedo, then maybe you are better off sitting riding the short bus to where ever you are heading.

It is just one of those things that is expanding the gap for America while the rest of the world progresses.

I wouldn't necesarily call it progress...different yes. Both systems work well. It's just what you are used to.

Metrication - that way lies madness!!

Here in the UK we are on the doorstep of metric Europe, and have been trying to 'go Metric' for about 30 years!! Today, we measure timber in metric, weigh food in kilograms, dispense gas in litres and... measure distance in miles, gas consumption in miles per gallon, nails in pounds, cars in tons (as opposed to metric tonnes)...

Temperature is in Celsius, pressure is in millibars, but altitude is in feet and aircraft and ship speed is in knots. Engineering is almost exclusively in millimetres, but kids get taught in centimetres and metres.

It's a b****y minefield!! Take a tip from the Old Country - stick with what you have until someone creates a Law that says you do everything in metric. This 'death by a thousand conversions' drives us all to distraction!!

I stick to millimetres for modelling as it's easier to do calculations, but my work takes me into fine tolerancing, and I can't visualise a micron for the life of me, so it has to be in good-old thousands of an inch or I haven't a clue!! For anyone over 45, metrication feels like the onset of memory loss - soooooo confusing. Do yourselves a favour - stick with Imperial.

Jason, you're Mister Graphite, have you put any thought into cutting up something similar that we can purchase??

E

little trick I picked up.

since most races have a minimum ride height of 4mm I found that three pennies stacked together is "just" a hair bit taller than 4mm so if you take the stack and the front/rear of your chassis clears the stack, then you are good and legal. If your chassis barely touches the outer little lip on the top penny, then you are exactly at 4mm