What Size are My Shocks? **EXPLAINED EASY**

[LowClassCC]

this question is one i believe others like myself have wondered. now i finally decided to make an attempt to try to figure out a fairly easy and quick way to figure this out. here is what i figured out.

i took a spare shock i had laying around. i compared it to the rear shocks on my rc10's and it was the exact same size as them all. (used the eyeball method to measure). ok i looked up in a parts list to verify the rc10 rear shock body was a 1.32 just as i had thought.

next i tried to figure out where the 1.32 number came from. well i found that if i measured the inside of the shock body from the clip holding the seals up to the top of the shock cap threads. this number came to around 1.41" now 1.41" is a little off from the 1.32" i'm looking for. after a little thinking i came up with this theory. i believe the 1.32" measurement is the max stroke of the piston. now ad in the thickness of the e-clip in the mix that would be between the piston and the clip holding the seals your inner measurement should be right around 1.32" i didn't bother to measure the thickness of an e-clip to see how accurate this is. but seeing that the 1.32 shock body is the closest thing to the measurement i took i will run with it.

ok i have verified that the shock body in question is a 1.32" i just need to find an easy way to get that number from the outside. now for convenience i decided to measure the shock body with cap on.

the outer measurement of the 1.32" shock body from bottom to the top of the cap came out to 2.26".

now simple math goes like this. 2.26" - 1.32" = 0.94". so there we have the difference. 0.94"

ok knowing that the associated shock caps are all pretty much the same and that the associated shocks use the same basic sealing area in the bottom of the shock i figured that i would try my theory out that i know have in my head.

i measure out a front shock. its a gold bottom loader. (the 1.32 was the newer inner seal loader style) the overall measurement of this shock came out to 1.65". ok lets try out the math. 1.65" - 0.94" = 0.71".

so there you have it. an easy way to figure out the length of your shock bodies.

quick recap.

measure the outside of the shock from the bottom of the shock body to the top of the shock cap. take that number and subtract 0.94" from it. the number that you are left with should be close enough to a proper size that is sold by associated. so you should be able to figure it out pretty easy as to what size shock body you have.

next up shock shafts. but this will need to wait until i rebuild a shock or buy some new shafts. currently the only shafts that i have that are not in a built shock are bent and that wont help any. if ou feel like figuring out the shaft measurements please feel free to post up your findings.

enjoy. now i'm going to go and try to find a life

[jwscab]

I'll also add what i think I know to be standard associated sizes(know for sure, that's another story). definitely correct me if I am wrong.

Low Class, I hope you don't mind me adding this.....


there are:

.56-buggy front
.71-option for short arm cars, wide track cars had these as standard
.89-buggy front, b2/b3
1.02-truck front
1.18-sc10 front?/b44/b4 rear
1.32-rear buggy, truck
1.39-rear sc10/t3/t4

shock shafts are the same, and also include a .32 shaft (DS, TCx, etc).

[LowClassCC]

add info all you want man

the more info we have around here the easier everyone's lives get.

[scr8p]

LowClass, that's the hard way to do it. your supposed to just LOOK at the shock body and instantly know what size it is.

[LowClassCC]

*speaking in a rickety ole timers voice*

well sunny sum of us don't have that skill.. i once told her it was eight inches. she started laughing hysterically and said it was six inches tops. and i was like





























she was right.. the chassis was only about 6 inches wide.

[Charlie don't surf]

[Frankentruck]

So what I'm getting from this is there isn't an external measurement on a shock body that will be the size. The .89 shock body doesn't have an external .89" measurement, etc.

[GoMachV]

Correct, but if you take the overall measurement (with cap) and subtract .94" you should have real close to the named measurent of the body. A .89 body should measure approx 1.83"

[GoMachV]

I did some measuring today and put together a simple cheat sheet. This is just for v1 shocks, top or bottom load. the numbers are close, rounded, but close enough for ID.

[dldiaz]

This is very helpful - I often fumble around with various shocks trying to figure out what is right for a particular build.