Wild One Blockhead Motors Suspension Parts

[kyoshofan223 11]

I scuffed up the piston rods when building the shocks & need to replace them. The part numbers are completely different from anything I've been able to find online, and all I can dig up are a few examples from overseas that are from the original model. Are parts for this thing really this difficult to find? It has to be a standard Wild One piston rod.. I haven't built a Tamiya kit in a few decades, which is probably why I'm goofing it up, but if parts are this hard to find, I may just throw in the towel & sell the 25% assembled kit. What am I missing here? Anyone know where to get these? Do I have to buy a new set of shocks for front and rear?

[ad456 294]

The rod for the rear is part 3455007 and is shared with the Fox and Supershot I believe, I found that on eBay. 
If you’re struggling to find them it might be worth a message to Tony’s Tamiya Parts on eBay, he’s pretty good and can get most stuff. Or a wanted in the buy/sell part of the site here and someone maybe able to help you out.

[Twinfan 765]

The correct Wild One part seems to be out of stock everywhere, but if you really want them they're part of this Hotshot parts bag:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/264703001267

[kyoshofan223 11]

7 hours ago, Twinfan said:

The correct Wild One part seems to be out of stock everywhere, but if you really want them they're part of this Hotshot parts bag:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/264703001267

Unfortunately this seller doesn't ship to the US. I can't tell if these are the correct pistons; seller hasn't replied, can anyone tell for sure?

[drc35 2]

Remember to wrap cardbord around the shaft !   grab the cardboardboard over the shafts with smooth pliers ,never scratched a shaft in 44

 years

[drc35 2]

everything on the wild one shocks is available from other tamiya kits for most part except I believe the shock bodys,except the front(which look very close to the hornet rear shocks?)  the rears can be swapped out with frog shocks and seem to work the same? Just wondering,now im going to have to find some hornet rears and see if they are similar or the piston and shaft?

 

 

 

[drc35 2]

If You want really smooth shock action,swap out the stock Tamiya black rubber seals for the Tamiya red rubber or silicone seals.

 

[kyoshofan223 11]

23 minutes ago, drc35 said:

Remember to wrap cardbord around the shaft !   grab the cardboardboard over the shafts with smooth pliers ,never scratched a shaft in 44

 years

I used a thick cloth, but accidentally grabbed the wrong pliers ... they were really, really hard to get screwed into the plastic thingies - my hands were sore after gripping them tight enough to keep the piston rod from rotating. I don't think cardboard would work but I will try next time. I scuffed them up badly enough to completely ruin the motion.

[drc35 2]

56 minutes ago, kyoshofan223 said:

I used a thick cloth, but accidentally grabbed the wrong pliers ... they were really, really hard to get screwed into the plastic thingies - my hands were sore after gripping them tight enough to keep the piston rod from rotating. I don't think cardboard would work but I will try next time. I scuffed them up badly enough to completely ruin the motion.

Stuff happens! We Learn! Sometimes it just costs more thats all!

[drc35 2]

I usually double or tripple fold cardboard over the shaft just in case i cannot find smooth plier ends.its agood way to prevent gouges or scratches as cardbord or cardstock is from hardwood and regular paper can be softwoods.and not as durable

 

 

[kyoshofan223 11]

Tamiya’s excellent customer service made up for the lousy online catalog/search tool at tamiya.com. I know which matters more to me. I filled out their online contact form on Saturday & received a reply Tuesday with direct links to the items I needed. I’m glad I didn’t spend way too much on a big package of parts I didn’t...wish I was more patient with the actual build. Now I just have to thread those plastic ball ends without scratching them up again...

In case anyone is interested:

Rear: https://www.tamiyausa.com/shop/7-digit-spare-parts/rc-piston-rod-58391/

Front: https://www.tamiyausa.com/shop/7-digit-spare-parts/rc-front-piston-rod-58525/

Thanks for the input!

[RichieRich 567]

After destroying several shock shafts, I just broke down and bought a pair of shock shaft pliers. The cheapest pair is going to be 1000x better than regular pliers and paper/cardboard.

[kyoshofan223 11]

9 hours ago, RichieRich said:

After destroying several shock shafts, I just broke down and bought a pair of shock shaft pliers. The cheapest pair is going to be 1000x better than regular pliers and paper/cardboard.

Ahh, modern technology. This is the downside of the unconventional way in which I enjoy the hobby today. I can't usually spend 2-3 evenings to build a kit like I used to, so when you revisit ongoing projects with a month or two in between, it's easy to forget ... that I already bought a tool like this back in '19! Though it was initially for installing ball-ends, if I can locate it (thanks Amazon Order History!), it should be smooth sailing from here. I did the exact same thing with a special e-ring tool a while back, forgetting I'd already purchased an alternative solution to launching those tiny little ******s across the room with a needle-nose & then frantically crawling around on the carpet trying to find the darn thing. Though I suppose learning this way is better than buying the same tool twice, which also could have easily happened here. Thanks for the reminder!

[kyoshofan223 11]

One more thing to add about this kit - I know it's more for nostalgia than performance/durability, but it really reminded me of why I was such a Kyosho snob back in the day. The quality of the parts is just terrible. You can't separate any parts from the trees without damaging the chrome 'finish', and the instructions' solution is to buy paint to try and touch it up. The plastic bushings are annoying too, but I also used to think Tamiya's instructions & builder steps were good too, but Kyosho provides extra e-clips & washers where you know you'll lose one, and doesn't use a bunch of screws that are almost identical... I dunno, I just feel like when I finally get it finished, it isn't going to look all that pretty as a display model, and isn't worth upgrading for the track... Compared to other re-releases, like Kyosho's Turbo Optima, the quality isn't even in the same ballpark.