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

Okay, so I've ordered a bunch of 3mm titanium turnbuckles in the appropriate lengths to upgrade my Optima's tie rods & rods that adjust the front & rear hubs' camber. I want to similarly upgrade the ball ends with ball cups, as I've seen on many of your hopped-up Kyoshos. I've been poring over eBay and either it's getting late or I'm just getting confused.

The stock tie rod balls are M2.6 size; the hub balls are all M3 pivot balls.

1) Can I just simply buy ball cups in sizes to fit the stock balls, and what sizes correspond with those M2.6/M3 sizes?

2) Better yet, can you link me to the actual ball cups you've used and know work?

Without removing a bunch of balls, all I would need to upgrade the linkage & camber rods are ball cups to fit 3mm turnbuckles and M2.6/M3 balls. Thanks again for the advice...all your help will pay big dividends once I start putting together my Project CYANide Optima. Cheers!

The Diameter of the Kyosho ball ( alloy inside hole 3mm and steel inside hole 2.6 mm ) is 5.8 mm.

prp wrote:The Diameter of the Kyosho ball ( alloy inside hole 3mm and steel inside hole 2.6 mm ) is 5.8 mm.

So, the M2.6 and M3 ball diameters are the same, but the holes of the tie-rod ends or necessary ball cups are 2.6mm or 3mm?

The ball cup is 3 mm , 2.6 mm is only for the inside steel ball hole

Specs aside, does anyone have links to actual products that work? C'mon guys, I've seen your Optimas and Ultimas with various aftermarket turnbuckles and ball cups installed. Share the knowledge.

Ok, I haven't done this conversion on an Optima, but I used RPM ball ends with standard associated balls (.17) on my Ultima. This was pretty much a straight replace old put in new hardware deal. The only thing was on the steering rack, I had to drill it out to fit the 4-40 thread instead of the M3 threading that was there.

I'm sure you can do the same with the Optima, but you'll have to account for the weird captured ball on the rear carrier and inner camber link on the front. Additionally, the 4-40 thread won't fit into the threaded hole on the steering knuckle.