How Many Sizes Of Kyosho Red Shocks Are There Anyway?

[Snake Plissken]

Yesterday, while working on my Ultima basher project, I decided to install Kyosho red shocks I had lying around. These are the small diameter ones the came standard with the original Optima & Ultima (and some other Kyosho cars). After mounting the rear shocks I noticed they have very small suspension travel before the shock fully compressed. After checking the manual and looking at some Ultima pics I suspect there is another, third set (medium?) thats supposed to be installed at the Ultima rear. I compared the current rear shocks to my Javelin shocks and found out they are the same. So, am I right to conclude that there are 3 red shock sizes: short (front), medium (rear Ultima), and long (rear Optima)?

Are there more sizes that I should be aware of before I start looking for the correct size shocks?

[terry.sc]

Red shocks were also used on the Turbo Scorpion and Tomahawk. Those are the same length as the Ultima set of shocks so they will fit the Ultima, but they are a smaller diameter.

The Optima/Ultima type is in 3 lengths, from fixing centre to fixing centre they are:

Both fronts 60mm

Ultima rear 65mm

Optima rear 80mm

As the red shock collars are prone to breaking you could always replace the shock mounts with Ultima upgrade ones and fit Kyosho or Associated gold shocks.

[Snake Plissken]

thanks terry, great help as always!

If someone has a used set of Ultima rear red shocks (the same as in terry's description in the previous post), even with broken collars, that he wants to swap with Optima rear red shocks please contact me at: anavon@gmail.com

To sweeten up the deal I will include a pair of complete (as in: unbroken, uncracked) red shock collars.

If we're in the subject of the red shocks, what oil shock thickness do you recommend? I read somewhere that really thin oil (10wt) should be used with these shocks to obtain normal off road damping effect.

[Kokuzu]

thanks terry, great help as always!

If someone has a used set of Ultima rear red shocks (the same as in terry's description in the previous post), even with broken collars, that he wants to swap with Optima rear red shocks please contact me at: anavon@gmail.com

To sweeten up the deal I will include a pair of complete (as in: unbroken, uncracked) red shock collars.

If we're in the subject of the red shocks, what oil shock thickness do you recommend? I read somewhere that really thin oil (10wt) should be used with these shocks to obtain normal off road damping effect.

Hi Snake,

I may be able to play Santa Claus. Let me take a look (and pics) tonight. I'm coming back to you tomorrow.

Matthias

[terry.sc]

If we're in the subject of the red shocks, what oil shock thickness do you recommend? I read somewhere that really thin oil (10wt) should be used with these shocks to obtain normal off road damping effect.

Yep, standard Kyosho oil in the red shocks and later what was provided in the kits for the gold shocks, was 10wt oil. Not bad for the front of the Ultima but suggest starting with 30wt for the rear red shocks.

[Live Steam Mad]

Hi, I just measured this, as I was curious to see if my newly arrived used Optima had genuine Optima shocks, and on my Optima it's 62.5mm front shock length, centre to centre, and 83.5mm rear shock length. Both front and rear shocks are 9.95 to 9.97mm diameter. This matches the Optima vintage video where the guy (who sounds like George Takei, Sulu in Star Trek, can anyone confirm for definite that he did the narration?) says that the rear shocks are "oversized 10mm units with a long 38mm stroke". Actually this is taking liberties , as the actual stroke of the rear units is 24.75mm, it's 38.5mm from the flat outer end of the shock cylinder to the centre of the ball joint which connects to the wheel, but of course there is a shock bottom collar and the plastic threaded part that the ball joint is attached to on the shock end which limits the travel to 24.75mm!

Cheers,

Alistair G.