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The short shocks, cause the worn front plate, which causes the worn arms, which pops off the c-clips.

YellowD: That's the realization that just smacked me upside the head......


Others: I have the parts to rebuild the original shocks. I thought I was upgrading with the newer top load shocks. But....it seems they may have been for the original short arm car and not the Championship Edition car....leading to my problem. I would have never figured that out on my own. I really liked the convenience of the top loaders but if what I have won't work....it won't work. Man they weren't cheap either...lol.

Oh well, I'll rebuild the old ones and then rebuild the car with a new chassis and set of arms. Thanks for all the help.

The shocks you have there could perfectly work. Just drill 2 extra holes in the shock tower or even use the ones below. The best would be to have a 1st gen shock tower probably.

And a bumper

knucklebuster wrote:And a bumper

Yes and a bumper and a different front shock tower

The bumper idea really adds to the nostalgic look anyway. I had forgotten about those Parma bumpers. Man, it's been like 25 years....lol The car is kind of popular when it runs at the track, the announcer always makes a point to advertise that there are 5 generations separating the cars as they fight for position. I can't keep up with the modern cars but it's fun anyway.

Something I'm going to try before putting my new shocks into storage. I'm going to mount the new, 6 hole shock tower. Then measure the difference in length between the shocks. I'll then move the new shocks down as close to that distance as I can. Then I'll raise the ride height up a bit and add stiifer springs. Once done I'll learn to drive the car that way. Lowering it a little at a time until a compromise is found between scraping and going fast. Though once the shock height is corrected, it may work itself out. We'll see.

The arm wear has always been present as far back as I can recall, and it's just a drawback of the design. You already did what I would have suggested; I usually don't run rear clips on the front inner hinge pin and put a set screw in holding the pin in place from the other end.

A bumper will help, but it will also decrease clearance slightly (causing more/harder ground contact) and also eventually wear away on the trailing edge where it sits proud of the chassis surface.

From my experience learning the hard way, stock vintage long arms break VERY easily, especially the white ones. The new black rere long arms are substantially stronger.

I've rarely ever had an real issue with the C-clips. Sure they pop off various places on the car from time to time, it's just how the RC10 goes, BUT I've never had one specific spot where they just won't stay on. I've always ran bumpers though, back in 1990 and still today, and if my a-arm ever got worn down nearly that much it would get replaced. I'm just kinda anal like that. I don't like worn parts on my cars, any of them, it's one of those OCD things for me.

You could always use shock shafts as hinge pins, C clip to the front, bolt to the back.

The Traxxas Slash has aftermarket hinge pins that have a stud on one end, and a locknut on the other. You'd just have to find the right size. Or maybe buy the complete kit they sell, and pick the right one. I bought them for my Slash because the stock hinge pins always back themselves out. Proline and STRC sells them.

All in all though, not having a c-clip on the back isn't a huge deal on the front, since the pins are easy to push back in. The rear end can be a pain though.

Jason: I've got a brand new set of the wide front arms for the car in it's box. I've been running the black one's for no other reason than they are replaceable. I guess the strength upgrade is a good by-product.

YellowD: I'm with ya bud. I don't run stuff like that either. That was the result of one track day. It's that bad.

JK and YellowD: I first started looking at possible upgrades when this first started happening. I came across those Traxxas pins as well. Good idea. People bash Traxxas but they put a lot of thought into their products. For some reason I've never owned any though.

Anyway, I think you guys found my problem. Take a look at these pictures! My god there is a huge difference. This has to be the reason this is happening. I've got my World's Car dialed in right now so I've been running it more; this has allowed me to work on the old CE. I rebuilt the stock, bottom loading shocks (btw, after dealing with the new top loads and V2 shocks on the WC, the originals are not smooth at all), installed them and provided the track dries up some, I'll test it tomorrow. I may have to completely re tune the car though. The old shocks really change the entire attitude of the car. It looks like all the others now.

Edit: I just realized that I installed the lower shock mounts into the wrong holes of the A-arm. Will likely reduce some of thet droop, but it's still a huge difference.

Ok, track day complete. One gouge on the nose plate from an invisible rock but NO SCRAPING at all! The front didn't drag one bit. My front ride height was 25mm. Silver springs with 6mm pre load.

SCR8P's eagle eyed reply led me to the solution.

The car ran really good considering the track conditions. The front end seemed to just work.

Thanks for all the help guys.

scr8p wrote:It looks to me as if you have .56 shocks up front and you are using the top hole in the tower which is really meant for .71 shocks. The arms are travelling up more than they should and could be helping to cause the issue.