Buggy front spring selection help

[aconsola]

My recently rebuilt rc-10 has a saggy nose.
I have silver springs on it, and even with some pre-load the front bottoms out easily over small bumps.
The only springs I have seen/owned for the short shocks are silver and gold.
I took a look over at the AE site and came up with this chart:
http://www.rc10.com/racerhub/techhelp/spring_rate_chart.htm

according to that the silver is the second most firm, and it doesn't list gold at all!
So my questions are: How do the vintage silver and gold springs compare to the modern ones listed above? are my silvers just worn out?
Thanks,
-Anthony

[templeofspeed]

My recently rebuilt rc-10 has a saggy nose.
I have silver springs on it, and even with some pre-load the front bottoms out easily over small bumps.
The only springs I have seen/owned for the short shocks are silver and gold.
I took a look over at the AE site and came up with this chart:
http://www.rc10.com/racerhub/techhelp/spring_rate_chart.htm

according to that the silver is the second most firm, and it doesn't list gold at all!
So my questions are: How do the vintage silver and gold springs compare to the modern ones listed above? are my silvers just worn out?
Thanks,
-Anthony

For the short arm cars silver were soft and gold were hard. I don't know if the silvers changed over the years, the part number didn't. Yours may be tired. Or it's an oil or piston issue. Maybe .56 shocks on a long arm car, in the wrong holes?

Considering the worlds car came with black (the softest at the time), I'd say look at your piston and oil situation as well as the condition of the springs. Buggies usually use #1 pistons with 30w oil. Green springs were the common choice. Silver springs are pretty stiff for the front of a buggy under normal race conditions. Gold springs are for restorations...since they're usually nice because they stayed home in the box.

[aconsola]

thanks for the info. The pistons have no number. I refilled with 30 wt, and the suspension and shocks both move freely.
The shocks measure just under 2.5" center to center, the shock bodies are about 1" from the bottom to the top of the threads.
Do I have .56 or .71" shocks?
I am using the original short arms with the pin and set screw for the bottom mount so I don't have any adjustments there.
The shocks have about 1/2" of preload on them to keep the front arms level at rest.
-Anthony

[templeofspeed]

OK, sounds like dead springs. My short arm cars have about 1/4" of preload, never had a bottoming issue. I am using the lower hole on the shock tower. Maybe the bumps you are encountering are slightly bigger than small?

[aeiou]

You have the .56 shocks, Anthony. The .71s are just shy of 1.25" using the same method of measurement.

I’ve used the blue fronts with pretty good results (part #6497, which oddly enough shares the same part number as the original 1.3 gold shocks). It wasn’t the best handling car with those, but it was a firm setup.

With the short arms and small stoke shocks, bottoming out is rather difficult to eliminate on these cars. A lot depends on what you are jumping, of course.

Paul

[wyldbill]

i realize that most of you guys are looking for period corect associated parts however i have a suggestion. why not try a steve tyson/custom works 8lb outlaw spring? it has the same dimensions as the standard buggy front springs and are much firmer. i think they are a little longer than stock springs but they were made basically for oval to use with short rc-10 and tc3 shocks. they fall between tc3 and buggy springs on the scale and most oval guys run them with great success.you put them in and basically dont put any preload on them and run them,then slowy add preload as needed. and since they are silver they should look like stock just a tiny bit thicker on the wire dia. tower sells them check them out; http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXNTP3&P=7

[Brat]

I'm running mine with the silver fronts and 1/4" preload with totally no bottom on issue. My spring came with my original in 1988. As such, I do not feel that your sping is worn out as I bash alot. I'm using Trinity 35wt shock oil but I do rebulity my shock every now and then, after 3-5 races depending on the type of tracks?

[aconsola]

I'm not jumping much, yet, as I did not have a body and wing for it until today, and did not want to risk damaging the electronics.
The picture below shows the car without batteries, dropped from ~6" above the table with 1/4" of preload spacers. The nose is well below the point where the arms are level with batteries in it is a little lower still.
I'll try the gold springs and see how that does.
-Anthony

[Erich Reichert]

Which springs were stock? I can't remember and i have a bag of loose kit parts that had a parts bag of both silver and gold, all four of each?

[Brat]

I'm not jumping much, yet, as I did not have a body and wing for it until today, and did not want to risk damaging the electronics.
The picture below shows the car without batteries, dropped from ~6" above the table with 1/4" of preload spacers. The nose is well below the point where the arms are level with batteries in it is a little lower still.
I'll try the gold springs and see how that does.
-Anthony

Do you have the Parma body dirt cover? Maybe you can use it first to protect your electronics till Tower have the shells in stock. Or why not just adapt a Tamiya Desert Gator or Sand Viper body shell like what Dr. Robotnik had done? Better looking though its not original. I'll prefer the Sand Viper's coz its slight more low profile...

[templeofspeed]

You need the older shock tower to get the shocks back to where they need to be. Or get some .71's on there.

[Asso_man!]

You need the older shock tower to get the shocks back to where they need to be. Or get some .71's on there.

yep, that is just what I was thinking

[aconsola]

Thanks for the help.