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Mrowka

Attitude adjustment and suspension articulation

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20200824_081927.thumb.jpg.b201bb5a07bcff16394b76f665fdb818.jpg

Building my Javelin is turning out pretty easy, for the most part. Not much harder than putting a moderately intricate Lego kit together - follow the detailed instructions, follow them to the letter, and everything goes together just like it should.

Well, for the most part. Coming from the helicopter world, where tiny fractions of a millimeter can make a drastic difference, I was very careful building the front and rear suspensions. The alignment was as exact as I could make it, I made sure that the left and right sides of the suspension lined up, and had no play and the same amount of tension in the two halves.

See helpful photo.

Worked pretty good. But why is the front suspension so much less articulated than the rear? I get that it has less travel, but where the rear moves more freely, the front resists being moved more and doesn't want to fall to the limit of its range of motion. Same issue on left and right sides.

See other photo.

Is this normal? Otherwise I'm trying to figure out what is causing the hangup, so to speak.

20200824_084412.jpg

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It will free up with use, and it won't take more than one or two runs. It's tight when new so that it doesn't get sloppy when it's worn in (like Tamiya cars tend to).

As for the difference in travel between the front and the rear, yes, that's normal, but the difference will be much less pronounced when you get the shocks on. The shocks are what limit the motion of the suspension on the Optima/Javelin (and most off-road buggies), there aren't any bump-stops.

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Ok, thanks. For what it's worth, the front suspension doesn't bind, it just requires more effort to make it travel. Steering is butter-smooth.

I was wondering whether I had something out of alignment.

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If anyone cares, I built the shocks last night.

I think I might need to do them again. The front shocks (or "dampers") are stupendously stiff, but the rear dampers are looser, and the springs creak like old bedsprings when mounted.

At least they don't leak. Laid them out on white paper all night and not a drop.

Unfortunately, Kyosho Gold Dampers seem to be almost unobtainium right now.

 

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