RC10Talk - The Net's Largest Vintage R/C Community

Hello all,
I've looked around, and the best, most comprehensive guide I've found is Y'ernat Al's Blinkinger.
With the re-release, plus the huge numbers of originals, there are probably quite a few people driving short arm Rc10's on tracks, whether they're racing or just driving around for fun. There's not currently much setup information for it right now, and I think it would be good to have a thread where people can share setups and tips, and maybe come to some kind of consensus on some aspects of tuning- just like the CE setup and discussion thread.

I am going to be turning my Goldpan back into a short arm soon, with Jellybean wheels and everything. Suspension tuning is allowed for Classic class, and I'd like to get the best possible setup. I really don't have a whole lot to add to this right now. I never had a good setup with short arms.

Hopefully we can form a knowledge base that will make it easier to get a good setup with these cars.

There are a few things in particular I'd like to hear about, though any input is much appreciated:
What front caster blocks (degrees) do most people prefer? I've seen everything from 15 to 30 degrees.
What rear camber link inner hole are you using? The stock inner- uppermost one in the ear, the one under the wing tube that got added when the CE came out, the one in between that the Worlds got, etc.
Everyone recommends 3 degree rear arm mounts on long arm Rc10's. Does this translate over to the short arm? If no one's tried I'll find out myself.

Please post any setups you've had and how they have worked, what the track conditions were, tips, etc.

Thanks!

Here's what I had before: This was the last short arm setup I had.

Proline Four Ribs/ Square Fuzzies on JC Racing wheels

Black front springs
Silver rear springs
30wt oil all around
Lower front shock tower hole
Second from outside rear arm shock hole

About 2 degrees of camber all around
Approximately 0 degrees front toe?
1.5 degree rear arm mounts, 1.5 degree rear hub carriers
15 degree front caster blocks
Trailing axles
Rear inner ballstuds in hole through wing tubes (same location as CE and on stock, I drilled it)

Stock bellcrank
Hitec 7965MG
SPC 5000mah 25c 2s
Fs-GT3b
Novak GTB-2
Novak SS 17.5

That about covers the basic stuff that I remember.
It was a little twitchy on my small, loamy backyard track. I attribute that mostly to the 15 degree caster blocks and the tires.

Here's what I have planned so far. I still need some help filling in the gaps, and I'd like input on whether what I've chosen is good.

Green front springs?
Silver rear springs?
30wt oil all around?
Lower front shock tower hole
Second from outside rear arm shock hole?

About 2 degrees of camber all around
Approximately 0 degrees front toe
1.5 degree rear arm mounts, 1.5 degree rear hub carriers
25-30 degree front caster blocks
Trailing axles
Rear inner ballstuds in hole through wing tubes (same location as CE and on stock, I drilled it)

A&L bellcrank
Electronics undecided
I'm interested in any input, thanks!

I'm looking forward to reading what others have to say. I got so fed up with my short arm Classic not handling well that I finally put on long arms and .71 front shocks. I tried all kinds of shock oil, spring combinations and nothing seemed to work. I have two other long arms cars that handled so much better.

I was going to say the same thing. My original gold pan setup (not re-re) kept flipping over with the short arms. Switched to long arms and added a rear sway bar and that made it much more stable. Trade off is the turning radius isn't quite as good.

The short front arms, and stubby camber links make the geometry a bit of a nightmare for setup (even though it was a huge improvement for 84') . The car has huge camber gain issues up front, and crazy bump-steer issues, and adding caster to effect steering only magnifiesthe issue.

Thanks for all the responses!
Since I'm planning to use Jellybean wheels and re-release tires, I'm thinking traction rolling shouldn't be too much of an issue.
Ca-rj, what rear suspension setups did you try before giving up?

I tried green and silver rear springs, 27.5 and 30 wt oils and different ride heights. The Classic is my play car but I still couldn't get it to run decent. The problem I had before I gave up was that the car would start to turn in fine and then at some point the front suspension would compress past a certain point and then the rear would spin around.

At the track, the car would just push, push, push, jumped terribly and was overall pretty disappointing to run. The only place the car seamed to run well was at the park in the grass.

I wonder if part of my pushing is from the ball diff. I can't really tell it it's too tight. It was never smooth like the diffs I've had on standard 3 gear transmissions. I know a tight diff will cause wonky handling.

I bought a CE for my son, added b4 shocks with 27.5 oil all around, big bore springs and the longer front shock tower. It handled 10x better than my short arm that I actively worked on to handle better.

I don't think much can be done about the tight diff. On the 6 gear, if the diff isn't super tight it slips constantly.

I figure that out after I added the 17.5 motor. I pretty much had to crank down the nut to stop the slipping. It seemed like the car handled okay when I had the Tamiya Sport Tuned motor in it (just wasn't pushing the car as hard since it wasn't as fast).

That's fine, then. I'll be running a Tamiya Sport Tuned for Vonats Classic class. The 17.5 will go in a long arm/ Stealth.

If you're running your car at the VONATS, take a look at this. Not that this setup helped me any, but maybe it will work for you.

Thanks! I've seen that. I was actually standing right next to Scott when he bought that car.
Maybe I'll try that as a starting point.

I pulled the Andy's arms off my 6 gear and went back to "stock" short arm set up. .56 shocks, stock short arms, stock front tower. To start, I am running #2 pistons, 32.5 front, 30 rear, with silver front springs (I have green, black and brown ready to try) with green out back. Front is all box stock/instruction manual set up, rear is CE style on the rear camber link. If the track isnt rained out tomorrow, I will do some testing & tuning and return with my full setup.

ca-rj wrote:I figure that out after I added the 17.5 motor. I pretty much had to crank down the nut to stop the slipping. It seemed like the car handled okay when I had the Tamiya Sport Tuned motor in it (just wasn't pushing the car as hard since it wasn't as fast).

I'm just about to go back to a milder motor in my re-re, actually. I have a 17.5 Novak Ballistic in it now, running it on-road in the driveway, and it just feels like too much. I never realized how much a slipper clutch smooths out takeoffs with higher-powered motors, and I don't like that "clack" as all the slack in the driveline suddenly gets taken up.

JK Racing wrote:I pulled the Andy's arms off my 6 gear and went back to "stock" short arm set up. .56 shocks, stock short arms, stock front tower. To start, I am running #2 pistons, 32.5 front, 30 rear, with silver front springs (I have green, black and brown ready to try) with green out back. Front is all box stock/instruction manual set up, rear is CE style on the rear camber link. If the track isnt rained out tomorrow, I will do some testing & tuning and return with my full setup.

Ran the car last night, just as it is set up above...very impressed. Using the JC vintage sized tires/wheels, 27t stock motor geared 13/54 (yes 32 pitch), it ran pretty well. Felt good on the track too. Didnt get much track time with it, but enough to know I liked the feel and the car was easy to drive.