Keen Hawk Stiff Steering

[Walsall-Basher]

im rebuilding my df03 after some diff issues and was wondering about the stiffness in the stock steering assembly, basically it all seems well designed until you screw the front gearbox/shock tower assembly over the top.

ive tried loosening off the 4 screws and it frees it up a bit but obviously having a floppy front end isnt an answer. would it be ok to shim it up a bit so that the whole thing sits a fraction off or is there a better solution. im only using standard servos atm. what about an alloy steering assembly, does this problem still exist then?

[TA-Mark]

4x 850 bearings (5x8) in the steering bellcranks removes most of the friction from the DF03 steering. If you've had a frontal impact it can bend the upper cover and it will jam the top of the cranks.

Don't overtighten the upper link ball screws in the steering knuckle, this will make the steering tight. I always glued these screws in at the right position. If you don't glue or overtighten they will come loose and fall off while running. The bottom kingpin screw can be done up tight without it affecting the tightness of the steering knuckles.

I had GPM hopup steering, C-hub and steering knuckles on one of my DF03's and it didn't change the steering at all. The same precautions were needed for the hopup parts for smooth steering.

The front lower arm hinge pins are too long unless you have the carbon fibre tie plate fixed to the front. They will catch on the steering drag link if you don't shim them on the front side with a piece of nitro fuel tubing to simulate the hopup carbon fibre tie plate.

[Walsall-Basher]

It has suffered a couple of front end collisions so I'm guessing something isn't true on it. With no linkages attached it's extremely stiff after screwing on the front gearbox. Guessing it's the front bottom plate that I need to swap out?