Well, I got my goodies yesterday and installed them at my office
The triple oil shock is truely a micro work of art! After some fooling around trying to get the motor mount and center shock to work and then attaching the stock motor (pain in the ass), it was ready to go.
Went to the track last night, fooled with it a bit (still need to go back) and it drives VERY well! I'm quite pleased.. I'm probably equally pleased with the replacement steering wheel as I am with the triple oil shock though
I still need to go back to the track and seriously dial in, but I'm quite pleased with the car now.. It seems to behave very nicely now.. possibly due to the extra weight from all the aluminum.
A few notes on installation: The GPM tri oil shock works with the stock motor but you need to use the plastic Kyosho shims and put a screw through the end clip to tighten down the motor, also you need to remove approx. 1/8" of the shaft to get the pinions to fit right. Also, the Kyosho ball diff works as well, but you need to take the two (!!) tiny washers that they provided in the kit and use both (!!) between the bearing and adjustment collar to prevent the collar from binding on the motor mount frame. Since the roll shock plate connects between the H-bar and motor mount, it lowers the back of the car about 1/16". I countered that by lowering the car in the front an equal ammount. It probably adds to the handling by reducing body roll and suspension travel too.
I would also suggest screwing and unscrewing the spring preload rings a few times to make sure they are smooth as mine are a little rough to turn and are already on the car. Also, note that the tie rod balls have hex heads for the standard size hex wrench so don' t rip them up with pliars if you need to move them.
I should also mention that I came in 1st in all three beginner heats, but that was 1st out of 2 once and 1st out of 3 twice. This is my second genuine race night.
I will be able to provide some shots of it installed later tonight since I'm at work now... Unfortunatly, for what it costs, it doesn't come with ANY extra parts like valving, oil, o-rings, etc... I don't know what I'm going to do when it does wear out, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. The dampening is acceptable to me, it's about medium return.
I don't think GPM makes a spring kit for the shocks but the preload is adjusted by a collar on the shock body. It is somewhat limited in adjustment but it gets the job done.
It's a shame there's no way to fit an oil damper on the front.. would certainly round out the handling on the car (since the front is still very "springy" by nature).
I've got one and I use the thinner CF T-plate.
It doesn't make the world of difference, but helps eliminate the front end hop usually experienced on extremely bumpy surfaces, where the front wheels get knocked about independantly.
Pity about no service spares on the triple oil shock set. I'm confident replacement O-rings can be bought from any reputable bearing/seal supplier.
Mondo, you can get replacement o-rings for them, unfortunately I don't know who makes them or the part number as we just got them out of my friend's parts bin but I can find out if anyone needs them. I think that the stock unit in fact just has a plastic collar, Jeff, can you confirm?
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