Ideas for Optima Upper/Tie Rod Hop-Ups?

[Coelacanth]

I'm considering some mods to hop up my Turbo Optima. Some of the things I've been looking into, researching fitment primarily by size, are the upper rods and tie rods. I've seen some nice anodized alloy rods made by 3rd-party manufacturers that might fit, if they match the approximate lengths of the Optima units, which are ~51 mm, ~55 mm, and ~73 mm--the lengths from tip-to-tip after the ball ends are screwed on. The balls appear to be 5.8 mm balls. The ball end holes are around 4.8 to 5 mm in diameter (though an exact spec would be helpful, if anyone knows it).

I could do this the hard way, by trial & error only using measurements and relying on info from eBay sellers, but maybe one of you Kyosho modding gurus already has parts or part numbers that are known to work.

I'm also looking into upgraded dogbones, either in chrome-plated steel or titanium, and the pin-to-pin length on those appears to be 63 to 64 mm.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance!

[Mad Racer]

I updated all my ball cups and links with losi ball cups and cut down lunsford titanium links.

So much better than the binding, loose kyosho ones.

[RichieRich]

So, a while back mikedealer posted this link:

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXWZ07&P=7

So, you can use the above with some 3mm titanium if you like.

[Coelacanth]

So, a while back mikedealer posted this link:

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXWZ07&P=7

So, you can use the above with some 3mm titanium if you like.

Thanks! So, what is the stock rod diameter, 2mm? And I assume with those 6mm ball ends, I'd be replacing the stock Kyosho balls too? They're 5.8mm.

[Coelacanth]

So, a while back mikedealer posted this link:

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXWZ07&P=7

So, you can use the above with some 3mm titanium if you like.

I tracked these down, seems like a good price. 4 x 25mm for the 4 upper rods and a pair of 48mm for the 2 tie rods.

http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170519061871&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

So, those ball ends you linked from Tower Hobbies will fit on the existing 5.8 pillow balls & steering balls?

[RichieRich]

As far as I can tell, these look identical to the ball ends used on the Ultima and Optima series buggies. In fact, the plastic tree looks exactly like the original Kyosho mold.

[bdrmbully]

why bother with those? just get some lunsford tie rods and ends. less slop that way!!

[Coelacanth]

why bother with those? just get some lunsford tie rods and ends. less slop that way!!

Got a link to something specific in the appropriate sizes?