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Reducing slop in Tamiya ball ends and suspension

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So I discovered this weekend that my ageing FF01 doesn't handle well at all. And although it could be blamed on inappropriate tyres and a very wet track, I did notice a huge amount of slop in pretty much every part of the suspension. Difficult to see what can be done about sloppy arms (bar replacing them) but there must be an easy solution to the sloppy ball end problem.

Is there a recommended upgrade or replacement for worn ball ends? I'd consider switching from bolt-type balls with closed cups to nut-type balls (with the hex recess in the top) and open cups so I don't have to pop the joints to service the car, but to be honest I don't do a lot of servicing on it anyway. It only comes out for the odd bash or maybe a fun race here and there.

Is there a way to reduce slop in FF01 arms, bar replacing them with new? I guess they're just worn after years of bashing.

Thanks :)

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I can't really help you with your problem, but I use nut-type balls and #50591 ball-collars (instead of step screws) whenever I can. I try to avoid bolt-type ball-ends and step screws, but sometimes I still have to rely on them when space constraints are given.

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If its a closed cup maybe a drop of hotglue might work to get rid of slop.

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So I discovered this weekend that my ageing FF01 doesn't handle well at all. And although it could be blamed on inappropriate tyres and a very wet track, I did notice a huge amount of slop in pretty much every part of the suspension. Difficult to see what can be done about sloppy arms (bar replacing them) but there must be an easy solution to the sloppy ball end problem.

Is there a recommended upgrade or replacement for worn ball ends? I'd consider switching from bolt-type balls with closed cups to nut-type balls (with the hex recess in the top) and open cups so I don't have to pop the joints to service the car, but to be honest I don't do a lot of servicing on it anyway. It only comes out for the odd bash or maybe a fun race here and there.

Is there a way to reduce slop in FF01 arms, bar replacing them with new? I guess they're just worn after years of bashing.

Thanks :)

You can shim any car and reduce slop. I shimmed my M05pro v2 within an inch of it's life. 3mm shim sets come in 0.1 / 0.2 and 0.3 mm sizes and you can use these to take out shims on most suspension shafts (they are usually 3mm). As to the ball cups and joint, just buy new ones, they are consumables they work on limited friction and the more they are used this friction will wear both the cup and ball down.

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In building TB03, TB04, TA05V2, and TA06 chassis this past winter I found a lot of places where shims and low-friction adjusters help these cars quite a bit; I'm sure some of the same techniques could help your FF01 as well.

- The lower suspension arms pivot on hinge pins, and there was some gap between the arms and suspension mounts. As Qatmix suggests, 3 mm shim assortments help take all the slop out of the lower suspension arms -- no more front/rear sliding motion. 3Racing makes some inexpensive stainless steel shim assortments in 3 mm as well as other sizes.

- The same 3 mm shims can work between the lower control arms and uprights, and between the steering knuckles and front uprights.

- Low friction adjusters (gray color) are made of a stiffer plastic material and supposedly less friction than kit (black) adjusters for all turnbuckles. I found fresh adjusters helped a little bit.

- 3 mm shims under the damper pistons made the dampers more functional, even with the slightest of suspension movements.

- I witnessed a big improvement using 5 mm shims between the outer bearings and cross pins on each axle stub. This tended to preload the inner bearing races just a little, and the axle stub wobbled much less. Don't overdo it, though, otherwise you might cause some binding.

- On belt cars like the TA05V2, I found I needed to use 10 mm shims to keep the front and rear pulleys from sliding side to side. On the TA06, I needed to use a few 4 mm shims to position the center transmission shaft a little better.

- On shaft cars like the TB03/TB04, I paid really close attention to gear mesh. 4 mm shims on the pilot shafts and 10 mm shims between the diff outdrives and bearings helped me set the pinion apex and mesh properly.

In addition to low-friction adjusters and shims, I found replacing all bronze bushings and some flange tubes with ball bearings was well worth it. My focus was on steering racks and IFS suspension arms. On any IFS setup, replace the bronze bushings with 850 ball bearings. If any of the steering bellcranks are using bronze bushings, replace them with 850 ball bearings. Also, if the plastic steering bridge is using flange tubes, I found I could drill out the holes with a 15/64" drill bit and press in 630 flanged ball bearings. Once all the bushings and flange tubes were replaced with ball bearings, the steering on all these cars was nice and tight.

I keep a small inventory of adjusters, shims, and ball bearings on my bench at all times for building these onroad cars... These are relatively inexpensive upgrades that make a big difference in the car.

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The FF-01 uses a bent wire link between the two plastic arms of the steering rack, and the arms ride on step screws. I found the majority of my front-end slop came from the rack. A ballraced alloy one from GPM made a huge improvement. Looks trick too!

DSC03950_zpsqx7xwxfs.jpg

As for the arms, shims will help a lot as per previous posts, but if the holes that the hinge pins ride in have been worn, shims will only do so much. The trick here is to get some high-grade cyanoacrylate adhesive, drip a little into the holes, then immediately insert a hinge pin and keep turning it until the adhesive activates. (An electric screwdriver helps.) This builds up a layer of hard, smooth cyanoacrylate for the hinge pin to bear on, and removes a lot of wear-induced slop.

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