My Gold Pan restore chapter1

[Chibfoo]

Well Christmas decided to come right in the middle of my tear down, staring at the parts definitely makes you want to move quicker, but I am definitely not the rushing type. Started with tearing down the front end. Removing the battery cup and working my way forward. Steering servo, shocks arms etc. etc. Definitely makes me nervous popping the cups off the ball studs, I’m sure you guys have a good tool or specific way of doing this, I’ve been using a flat head and prying really gently and hoping for the best . But to make a long story short. Disassembling the whole vehicle piece by piece for a good soap and water bath, then some plastic hydrogen peroxide sunbathing. Stay tuned for my successes and failures!

[graemevw]

Leave the sections assembled and boil the sections with ball cups before popping the balls out.
3 of mine cracked before i figured id boil them first, all the others came out nicely after that.

[XLR8]

.. I’m sure you guys have a good tool or specific way of doing this, ...

Yeah, you might think so. But alas, I've been tinkering with these things for years but I still just use a small flat-bladed screw driver to support one end of the ball cup while levering the other end off using the turn buckle. That's probably how you've removed yours.
There's a slot on one end of the shock wrench that was supplied with the kit that I thought was meant for removing ball cups but I've never had much luck using it.
Anyway, boiling the nylon parts is important - especially after they've spent some time in the peroxide bath.
Looking forward to the next update.

[Chibfoo]

Thanks for the tips guys. Boiling definitely helped take the pressure off the cups. I was able to find some replacement cups on rcplanet or some other site. They’re rpm, they look a tad bit different from the oem ones, these are solid white I think instead of that semi-transparent look. But might give those a shot to get that clean look. I was also chatting with this seller I met on eBay who told me to take the, what I call tie rods, not sure what they’re actually called, and wire brush them then dip them in gun blue. Might give that a whirl and post some pics and see how that works. Mine are very rusted. Next update may take a week or so since the sun here in Missouri hasn’t been showing up too often haha. But the peroxide bath is doing pretty well, might have to try that with my teeth sometime! Also bid and won on this beaut the other day on eBay, can’t wait to get it and tear into it as well! Looking forward to coming up with a cool but vintage paint job for it.

[Chibfoo]

In all her vintage glory

[jb7778]

Peroxide bath seemed to work well? Were the parts significantly discolored?

[jwscab]

The safest way to pop ball cups off is to use the link as the lever and lift off. It's hard to explain. You don't pop the ball cup off sideways or on the threaded side. On the short side. Lift the thread shank area until it stops, then gently keep lifting and it will pop off. I try to only do that as a last resort. Like fixing something on the car, I will drop the lower arm pins and repair, leaving the top link in place.

[Chibfoo]

Sorry been awhile since I updated, been ordering parts, I was not aware that there were 2 different types of front stub axle/steering block combinations. The one I had that I needed to replace, had a short back end and the hex cavity was deeper in the plastic, so when I got a new set of blocks, they wouldn’t fit, so I had to buy a couple stub axles as well. Thanks for all the advice on getting those ball cups loose, helped a lot, especially the short boil to soften the plastic. Yes a lot of the plastic was really discolored, and I ordered some new parts, battery cups, etc that were also discolored, and that peroxide bath really is amazing, man that makes a difference. So all the parts are clean, except I made a goof, and tried to clean the rusty screws with vinegar, and low and behold they look like they came off my grandpas old Massey Ferguson. So waiting on some some hardware to replace those as well. I will post some pics as soon as the new parts come in!

[bluewormx]

I was not aware that there were 2 different types of front stub axle/steering block combinations.

Actually there are three.
6216 + 6219 (trailing hex) original design until wide arms came out.
6217 + 6218 (inline hex)
You missed 6221 inline steering block for aluminum axle and 6220 aluminum axle. These came with all late kits ~1993