Plastic shocks

[losiXXXman]

I recently topped of the oil in my Outrage's shocks, and they're not half bad. I only wish I had a longer pair for the rear of my car. (Who puts short shocks on the rear of a car - besides dirt oval ).

So I was looking at plastic shock options, and came across the old sport shocks from kyosho. They were"kelron" i think, and came in black, yellow, blue, and green. The question is, do they have seals? and will they hold oil?If so they might be half decent - not for your race car, but for the bash-type or kids cars...

[j0pp3]

I suppose you mean the FD-37 (front, short) and FD-38 (rear, long). Yes, they are oil shocks and mine does not leak. I remember these where referred as "Black Gold" when I was a kid

[Groomi]

I had those on my Cat XLS back in the day and thought they were pretty good. Still have them but need a replacement shock cap if anybody happens to have one kicking around...?

[Mr. ED]

I've run these and found them to be pretty good also. Their design is pretty much identical to the goldsshocks.
should they leak than it should be easy to solve: new o-rings and unscratched shafts

[keithrc]

I'm running these Equaliser shocks on a couple of my Optima runners, they seem to work pretty well.


Keith

[losiXXXman]

Thanks for the replies guys. Like I said, I'm starting to realize that ALL plastic shocks shouldn't be looked down upon with the disdain I used to place on them. So long as they have a seal, and you can fill them, change springs and pistons.... I'd even like to just have a pair of the plastic ones for my outrage in the longer stroke...again these shocks aren't half bad once tuned.




These might even be cool "modern" alternative too:

http://www.kyoshoamerica.com/Plastic-Oil-Shock-Set-With-Ad_p_3669.html

[losiXXXman]

Also, from what I can tell, just like the golds, the sport shocks came in shorter medium and long. Can someone remind me what the lengths were (eyelet to eyelet) of each respectively?

THANKS!!

[Mr. ED]

I don't think I've seen medium sized ones yet. Ultra-short for touring cars, yes.
The thing with plastic shocks is that the material for the housing is often not the only place were cost saving has been applied. Often they come with softer uncoated shafts that scratch quickly or get bent easily. The pistons are poorly moulded and have flashes on them.
(Those really short ones in the picture an example of that in my experience, but the ones higher up use the same components as gold shocks aside of the housing)

For the body part, again: material and moulding can vary a lot. You can imagine a cheap soft plastic in a poor mould and bad controlled manufacturing process, is not going to produce a nice straight, burless and round cilinder for the for the piston to move in. On the other end you can get high-precision carbon reinforced plastic parts.

I have a bunch of academy shock bodies in medium and long (not extra long) in black, yellow, green and pink. Like the kyosho ones they use glass inforced plastic which make the housing very stiff.
But unfortunately the stock shafts are pretty soft and I have only a couple long and 1 set of short shafts left ... and no sets with pistons and seals etc

[Mr. ED]

short=69mm , and that's the same as a short gold one (I measured both just now)

If I come across a built long one in my stuff I'll measure that too

[keithrc]

I just measured one of my Mid rear gold shocks and it was 103mm.


Keith

[Bormac]

I think I have a new set of those rears in my shed plus a full set of used fronts and rears. If you are looking for a set let me know.

[losiXXXman]

The PN for the shocks are w5141,5142,5143 (S,M,L). Also a suffix for different colors. GR - green, BL-blue, Y- yellow. Jason, which ones do you have the outrage style or the kelron ones? would the shipping from down under to the US make this completely impractical? I though it would be kind of interesting to keep the car "plastic fantastic" style, but anything over $15, could probably pick up some decent used B4 shocks...

[Mr. ED]

long sports : 93mm... maybe I have replaced the shafts or used inner spacers to shorten them.

[Lowgear]

I don't know if those j0pp3 posted are the same but they look identical to the ones that came stock with the Nitro Thrasher I had which were the leakiest shocks I have ever seen to this day. I thought I've always read to stay away from them (possibly on here) due to how much they leak but maybe not... Anyway, back in the day I remember the shocks were always either 3" or 4" long.

[j0pp3]

I don't know if those j0pp3 posted are the same but they look identical to the ones that came stock with the Nitro Thrasher I had which were the leakiest shocks I have ever seen to this day. I thought I've always read to stay away from them (possibly on here) due to how much they leak but maybe not... Anyway, back in the day I remember the shocks were always either 3" or 4" long.

You are absolutely right. We are talking about different generations "sports" shocks in this thread.

First we have the ones I posted which was widely used in the late 80's/early 90's for models like:
Ultima 2
Ultima Outlaw
Rampage
Outlaw Rampage
Optima Mid Custom
Peugeot 405
Nitro Thrasher
And a lot more...

Then these where replaced by the ones losiXXXman talkes about in the first post. They where used for models like:
Lazer 2000 (yellow version)
Outrage/Sandmaster (black version)
Lazer Alpha?
Kyosho Tracker (based on Outrage)

Then they where replaced by the ones with a "gold top" used by for example:
Ultima ST Racing Sports
Ultima RB


/j0pp3