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I haven't had any issues with the open ended ball ends. They have never popped off on me, surprisingly. The slop is definitely not from this part of the suspension as far as i'm able to observe. But I do think dirt is probably making its way in between parts and wearing out quickly. I try to rebuild the front suspension every 10 battery packs and grease the hell out of every friction joint

radiocontrolhead wrote:I haven't had any issues with the open ended ball ends. They have never popped off on me, surprisingly. The slop is definitely not from this part of the suspension as far as i'm able to observe. But I do think dirt is probably making its way in between parts and wearing out quickly. I try to rebuild the front suspension every 10 battery packs and grease the hell out of every friction joint

Hey, this is Brian, met you at LRH last Thursday. Glad to see you on here

mk-Zero wrote:

radiocontrolhead wrote:I haven't had any issues with the open ended ball ends. They have never popped off on me, surprisingly. The slop is definitely not from this part of the suspension as far as i'm able to observe. But I do think dirt is probably making its way in between parts and wearing out quickly. I try to rebuild the front suspension every 10 battery packs and grease the hell out of every friction joint

Hey, this is Brian, met you at LRH last Thursday. Glad to see you on here

Brian!

haha thats pretty awesome you were able to figure out it was me. I'm still trying to find a good way to fix this awful slop in the front end.

radiocontrolhead wrote:I haven't had any issues with the open ended ball ends. They have never popped off on me, surprisingly.

Oh, they certainly will, eventually. And grease might actually harm more than help, as it attracts dirt into the lubed joints. I've seen and owned plenty of Optimas that you could pop those 5.8mm ends off, just by giving the front wheels a crank.

One way the slop can be taken care of for good is to drill out the pivot hole in the front trailing arm and insert a brass or better yet, plastic sleeve, very thin one so you don't enlarge the hole too much, than it will be a tight fit, no slop, but will still pivot very smoothly, that way, you will not wear out the aluminum, also due to the close fitting of the arm to the bent front shaft, dirt will not get in so easily. Yes, I have the vintage setup, the camber in the front tire drives me crazy too, I had to straighten out the front arm shaft a little to fix this but due to loose fitting parts, its like that. You can also add sleeve to the knuckle too, but the major improvement will be with the arms if you sleeve those with plastic or brass. I have to yet do mine, since I still have not driven mine cause I don't have a powerplant in it, it does not bother me too much. You can do the rears as well, I have done that, 3mm brass bushings, no play, only smooth pivot motion.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/110872915@N05/15219855351/in/set-72157647193815210

Grease will harm the parts more, I did that to an exposed gear train, and man, the brass pinion gear tooth started looking like a vampires front teeth grease and oil gather dust and dirt and sand that slowly grind metal parts much easily than plastic.

Ron,

That sounds like a great solution to this problem, didn't even think about it. I will start to look for possibly a teflon lining that can can slip between those gaps.

Grate done Ron!

Thanks Radiocontrolhead and Lars, before you slip in something there, you will have to drill out a little. I was also thinking if I can replace the shaft, its a little too thick for my taste, but I guess you would have to do a lot. I have hardened 3mm shafts but they are straight, and you can't bend them like that.

I have been searching mcmaster care's catalog for a brass or teflon sleeve but have had no luck. it appears as though only the outside diameter are in whole measurements while the inner diameter is the off dimension. Ideally would like to find a tube with a .5 MM wall thickness.

I found something on ebay actually.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/PTFE-Teflon-Tubing-Pipe-ID-3MM-OD-4MM-White-Clea-r-/131287912052?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&var=&hash=item1e915e8e74

I will be buying a drill bit 1mm larger than the shaft diameter and drill out everything to accept this sleeve. How does something like that sound?

that would work, the arm pivots are beefy enough to take that enlarged hole. I have small tubes that will work great, got them from old VHS players, you find some great parts from these machines

i'm wondering if there is anything i can fabricate to ensure that the drill bit stays centered throughout the whole drilling operation. Is there anything out here on the market for this application in lieu of a drill press?

The best way to do it is use a hand powered drill, you must enlarge the only a little, say, 1mm + in dia if you can help it, that way the drill bit will stay its course, following the already 'pilot hole' that the arm already has.

Don't go from one hole to the other, do one hole, turn the arm around and do the other one, than to line them up, run the bit through from one end and come out the other. its pretty simple, no need for any fancy machinery.

radiocontrolhead wrote:i'm wondering if there is anything i can fabricate to ensure that the drill bit stays centered throughout the whole drilling operation. Is there anything out here on the market for this application in lieu of a drill press?

I sometimes use threading bits to prepare enlarging a hole. The threading tool has three bits that gradually cut the thread deeper. By starting with the the smallest bit you can feel it follow the already present hole. Once the thread is in place it willbe asy to keep the drillbit in the right angle too.

I'd like to see how this works out if you do this. I think it's a great idea.

Ron,

That sounds doable for the suspension arms, I'll give that a try. I plan to sleeve the steering knuckles as well and the other end of the suspension arm (where it accepts the kingpin elbow bolt). Should I not be worried about alignment issues when drilling those two other pieces? The drill length for the steering knuckle is a lot longer than for the steering arms and thus could result in high probability of error. I guess the tolerances would be a huge difference compared to what it is now so it won't be much of a big deal. I am wondering what the tolerance between the shafts and the teflon sleeve will be. Pretty excited to get started on this.