DT-03 CVA Dampers

[Rb4276]

It's does, I think I'll try a different oil.

[Effigy3]

It's does, I think I'll try a different oil.

Don't forget to report back what you used and how it worked (or didn't).

[nowinaminute]

On 02/01/2016 at 9:00 AM, Nobbi1977 said:

Keeps the back end from dragging though.

Just a thought, the rears have a story of black coating on the shaft. I always polish this off, did you?

Sorry to dig up an old thread but thank god it's not just me. 4 sets of these now and the fronts with the polished shafts glide like silk and the rears with the dark almost mottled finish tend to get stuck open till you press the car down to release them and even when they are freed up they still have a much higher resistence. 

It's most noticeable in my DT-01 because the large unsprung mass of the solid axle design requires a very soft damper to work well.  But it's also noticable on my DT-03, a Nikko Dictator I upgraded to oil dampers and even the Kumamon DT-02 I'm building for my daughter for Xmas. 

What can I use to try and polish the shafts? Would brasso be too harsh? The only other thing I have is car polish or diamond cutting compound but that stuff is so fine I use it to get fungus off of camera lenses and even that can take hours. 

I'll be glad if I can get them balanced out because the front ones are just exceptionally good for simple plastic shocks. If I can get the rears to work as nicely I'll be laughing. 

[Nobbi1977]

I use 2000 grade sandpaper and it makes them much smoother in use.

[nowinaminute]

I happened to get a CW-01 damper set in the post today and noticed the shafts were also slightly dull but not as bad as in the DT-03 set. But I tried to polish one with some simple car polish anyway and wow what a difference! It's hard to appreciate it in the photo but it's much shinier in real life and feels noticably smoother to touch as well. 

 

I'm starting to think this discolouration might be a small amount of black oxide rust, sometimes people call it patina. It forms in very low oxygen conditions and doesn't attack metal like regular orange rust. In fact, some people encourage it to form on tools etc because it actually protects against regular rust.

These shafts weren't anywhere near as dark as the DT03 ones but polishing them still made a significant difference, can't wait to try the same with with a DT03 shaft. 

 

[whahooo]

I got my DT-03 yesterday.

It was already assambled and i think the Groundclerence is not very good. The car bottoms out when i let it fall from 20 cm or so.

Maybe the preowner sued some Spacers inside the CVA, but i can`t understand why you would ever use a Spacer in them. I´ts an off road car.
I think the wider the Damper puts the rod out the better it is (to a certain level). I think it is not wrong to have 3 cm or air so under the Car when you installed a Nimh and a little bit extra "negative dampening" when you lift the car.

 

 

How do you set up your CVAs in the DT-03?

 

 

 

If there are Spacers, i will remove them from the shock.

[SlideWRX]

If you have extra oil, disassemble those shock and polish the rods.  The CVAs with the metal one piece rods come with a dark coating on them, that manage to add friction, and wear off over time anyway.  I recently pulled mine apart, that were only ~ 5 months old, and the coating was floating around in the oil!  I used a Dremel tool, with a generic polishing wheel on it and the generic polish that came with it.

I've gone back to the stock springs, with ~3mm preload in the back and no preload in the front.  I went thicker oil in the back (500 cst vs 400 cst that it comes with), and thinner front ( 300 cst vs 400 cst). Seems to be working well.  I got a pack of red o-rings from tamiya as well to replace the black ones.  The shocks are much smoother now.

I've got the shocks on the inside holes front and rear.  The rear is sitting a bit high, even when I bounce it.  The front is level.  I am running a Nimh pack.

[BuggyDad]

Coincidentally I just started a thread on (nearly) the same thing. 

Also DT-03.

I would suggest that those internal spacers won't affect bottom out. They'll limit the max/top out height but not alter dynamic ride height nor bottom out. 

However, I also thought the rear to be under sprung and as new and with the stock wheels and springs mine's belly would also hit the floor from a similar drop, just about. Too soft springs was my take. 

[whahooo]

I rebuild the shocks. Sadly i had no orange O Rings at hand.

 

There were no inner Spacers installed.

But i archeived to higher the rideheight by choosing the inner holes of the Arms instead of the outer holes.

Also i put the outer Spacers of the rear shocks UNDER the springstopper on the Bottom to get higher Tension.

Si now i have longer dampening and it doesn't bottom out as fast as before.

[whahooo]

Toda i installed the Stabilizer Set.

I used the soft red Wires instead of the blue ones.

I think the rear Stabilizer sits way to loose.

 

 

What Stabilizers do you use? Red or Blue?

[SlideWRX]

I think there is a discussion on here about some small set screws that hold the rear sway tight, that aren't necessarily noted in the instructions.  I can't find that discussion though. I don't (yet) use the sway bars.

[whahooo]

Found it