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

RichieRich wrote:I love the period hop-ups! Are you going to do the 3rd shock mod for the rear?

tamiyadan wrote:since he has the you-g sway bar there is no need for the 3rd shock mod.

if you install the 3rd shock you have to ditch the sway bar setup.

just installing the sway bar setup that locks the front of the gearbox into a hinge is a massive improvement.

the original setup with the little springs inside the front mounts allows the front of the gearbox to hop up every time you touch the throttle making the hornet bounce under acceleration. Tamiya made those little springs too weak and pointless in the front pivots. the 3rd shock mod installs a 3rd shock from the front of the gear box to the top of the chassis mimicking the little springs but much stiffer, the idea was to try and keep some articulation in the rear end. Honestly locking it is a better solution either using a sway bar or using the grasshopper pivot arms which do not allow up and down movement of the front of the gearbox, but it also shortens the wheelbase slightly.

as for the front you-g style shock, just make sure if you are displaying the car you never fill it with oil. it is a single O ring seal with ZERO lateral support and the shock shaft flexs around like crazy as the suspension compresses thus any oil you put into the shock will leak right out.

You-g type shocks are also not rebuild-able. the seals are press fitted into the bottom of the shocks, if you try and knock out the brass plug they will never hold back into the body of the shock, so once the o-ring is toast that is all she wrote. even worn out the shocks will dampen but you will constantly be refilling them and cleaning up the mess under the shock of seeped oil and dirt that will collect making a real big mess. if you run the car then fill the shocks so you have some benefit if you display the car drain all oil from the shocks.

another issue with that front shock design the geometry of the suspension and mounts does not allow the shock to move freely. after a while of running you will notice the front shocks are hanging up and jamming, when you open them up first you will see all the oil is gone, next you will notice the shock shafts are now in a parabola shape "U".

the only 2 You-g type parts for the hornet that were any good were the side nerf bars, and the sway bar setup( many companies copied each other on all hornet parts)
the you-g style front and rear shocks are utter garbage and you are better off with the tamiya original or new(better) rear oil shocks and then tweaking the original friction shocks with different spring rates from CRP. you can also alter the dampening a little with different types of cut rubber hose to replace the original tamiya black rubber hose inside the hornet shocks.

everybody remembers the mugen manx and panda cyclone because they copied the hornet(sort of) and then attached You-G parts to the chassis and sold them as hopped up hornets. so everyone wanted those blue or Gold anodized parts for the hornet, truth is 80% of those parts were rubbish even worse then stock but they had a bling factor when you showed off at the track or backyard bash.

fun fact: the panda cyclone and the Mugen Manx look like exact copies of the hornet mechanically but they are very different. the gear box between both the cylone and manx are not interchangeable, the gears and shafts are not interchangeable either. mugen and panda basically copied each other but then had to make the cars different enough to not be sued, and not be sued by tamiya either. many people list replacement parts as fitting the hornet, manx, cyclone on ebay however these parts are 100% not interchangeable they just look similar, basically they took a collection of hopup parts and built a car around them so the hopup parts are interchangeable but nothing else is.
the chrome front end on the manx and cyclone was also another hopup for the hornet back in the day, it is debatable if it was any good basically it gave you the ability to change the camber angle on the front tires and attempted to reduce bump steer and deflection slightly. Many hornet guys want that chrome front end as a hopup.

tamiyadan wrote:i didn't mean to lower your car, please don't take it like that.

having had all of them at some point, CRP, PARMA, YOU-g, ETC, they are all junk, they look great though.

they do function i should point out, if you fill them with oil you will gain a benefit, however you will be rebuilding them after every 4-5 minute race run and cleaning up a huge dirt and oil mess underneath the car. the front shocks no matter how nice you treat them will damage themselves over time. the suspension geometry causes the movement in the shock area to be parabolic and the thin shafts of those mini shocks will bend over time.

if you really want a good upgrade for the front end then you want the hottrick/CRP front shock mount
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Metal-Shock-Tower-for-Tamiya-Hornet-or-Grasshopper-CRP-Vintage-Style-RC-/121075145472?pt=Radio_Control_Parts_Accessories&hash=item1c30a41b00

now you will need to modify the chassis cutting the front shock mounts off the chassis and altering it forever.

this is why many people don't do this unless you find a hornet or grasshopper original chassis with a broken shock mount.

that shock mount allows a normal sized shock for more dampening and options.

Tamiya's hornet rear shocks (the new ones) are very good but have limited adjustablity.

really i'm just making a general reference for everyone. since you will display it do not fill the shocks with oil, i would grease the pistons inside and leave them be.
otherwise over time they will completely drain out underneath the car and make a big mess.


for fun here is a double shock mod on a grasshopper
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvzriqXwa7c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_3954670199&feature=iv&src_vid=WvzriqXwa7c&v=MiemYxzqRGE


and here is a write up for the 3rd shock
http://www.tamiyaclub.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=62351&hl=

tamiyadan wrote:hee hee there just all similar is all, one design has the shaft going through the cap requiring a double seal top and bottom(so that means it leaks from 2 places.)
and the shock body floats, and the other has the cap fixed with the top mount and the bottom floats more like a traditional shock with the shock body staying in place.

Crp, RCH, You-g, Troll all copied each other.
Parma went on on a limb and attempted the floating shock body design.

Yup i'm not sure why tamiya decided to give you the modified gear case on the Re-release.

easy fix, just buy a grasshopper or lunchbox gearcase. it will have the little ledge that sticks out.
what happens on the grasshopper the pivots are more inbound then the hornet so that little ledge fits into the chassis into the battery box, i guess its suppose to act as a limiter for the gearbox travel but it is useless. it should take you 20 minutes to swap out the gear case, then you can swap the you-g type sway back in and you can see how it really works.

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