looking great dude!

stock oil is 30wt.
axial uses it for all their cars

I know right... these shocks came with a bunch of parts but no explanation on tuning the shocks so I followed the instructions exactly but there was this parts tree:

http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/g...194110AM-1.jpg

Which I assume some how alters the dampening as this is what the oil is pushed through. I went with the two hole option.

Stock Axial oil might be 30wt but what do you reckon this is:

http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/g...l0194121AM.jpg

This is what came with the shocks... no marking / no label / no nothing - just oil...

So no real changes to the Exo over the weekend, I'll hold off until I get my ESC back before ordering the final parts... did pick up a hobby case to store my spare parts in though:

http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/g...l0194209AM.jpg
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/g...n3074735PM.jpg

Snazzy right ;)

oooooooo fancy box. me likey.

how thick is that oil? most oils that come in a kit are unlabeled like that.
if it is extremely thick, it is most likely diff oil, and from the color tone, im pretty sure it is

if it's fairly thin and moves around without might trouble, it's gonna be shock oil

lol GMade are sayings its shock oil although given the color I am dubious.... but whatever it's all I've got to work with any the moment. To describe it I would say its thick but not to think and moves around without much trouble...

if it moves around without much trouble, it is most likely shock oil.
If i have time on wednesday, ill pop open one of the exo kits at work and see if they even include oils other than the shock oil.

diff oil will feel like it's moving in slow motion haha

So my solder guy (who shall remain nameless so as not to be bombarded with requests for solder work) came through like a legend and the ESC is on the way back to me:

http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/g...ggy/photo1.jpg
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/g...ggy/photo2.jpg

This puts me one step closer to completion, next I'll have to think about order my battery pack and charger.

Haha. Yea, those parts on the tree are responsible for shock dampening. Basically, the more open area for the oil to flow through, the faster the shocks will react and the less dampening you will have.

hmm so whats better then? fast shock reactions or more dampening....

Depends on what your doing. Big jumps need lots of damping and fast bumps need fast reactions. Finding the perfect balance is the fun part. Sorry bud, no cut and dry answer for that question. Spring choice, hole size/number, and shock oil all affect handling. Along with ride height, sag, bla bla bla.

oh average 2 hole with 40-50wt oil in those bodies with the stock springs seems to do decent.

most bashers prefer a 2 hole set up

racers however will rebuild their shocks at least 10 times when tuning to a specific track.

i say stick with the 2 hole and stock settings and move from there.

OK built the rear shocks and went 3 hole... figured I can also switch them around if I want.... at the moment I have a ton of preload on the fronts then not so much on the rears which is copying how the previous owner had the stock ones setup... will just have to see how she handles when I finally get her running.

I tried outboarding the shocks but I realized that you end up attaching the shock to a flimsy piece of cage plastic, my guess is a hard landing would snap them off... I looked up outboarding for the Exo and found out you need a kit from STRC (or similar) that gives you additional metal points to mount to, so thats on the list. At the moment the shock are in the stock inboard position which is a tight fit and gives some body rubbing so we will have to see what happens.

Most people mistakenly set their preload way too tight so they can jump higher without bottoming out. Too much preload eliminates sag which makes handling horrible. You need sag because your shocks need to not only absorb bumps, but also let the wheel drop down for dips. With too much preload and the car "topped out" every time you go over a dip, the wheel flies through the air for a little bit and then hits the upside of the dip as it ends and causes instability instead of the tire being able to drop into the dip and maintain contact with the track. Most people get used to driving like this and sadly never get to experience just how good their car can actually handle. Drop your car from 8 inches and see where it settles. If the shocks fully extend (slowly pick the car up, chassis should rise before the wheels leave the ground, if wheels leave the ground right away shocks are fully extended) your preload is too tight. Look up "setting sag" if my ramblings are nonsense.

Wanted to check out my rear shock setup so went ahead and partially assembled the Exo, this is where you can see why people gripe about it:

http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/g...l0514748PM.jpg

The top-half / the cage is completely independent from the bottom half so when you put it together you have to have your battery pack already in there and take panels off and then assemble it and then thats it... don't expect to perform maintenance on it without breaking the whole thing down again.

Anyways rear shocks are interesting... the fronts handle nicely but the rears seem to be struggling to support the weight of the Exo, it makes me wonder if I shouldn't reverse them and people complain about the Exo going nose down on jumps so maybe lighter shocks at the front will compensate for that on landing...

Bart I'll look over your setting say piece and see what I can figure out.

and of course as soon as I put the Exo together the ESC shows in the mail :(

http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/g...ggy/null-1.jpg

Looks great though!!

^ ahahahaha
that always happens to me. order something. put car together with old parts. new parts arrive the day i finish putting it back together.

That thing is freegin setsy. I hear you on getting bored with one thing and looking for the next fix. Because of limited funds, I've landed on a Losi Mini 8ight right now, it should keep my attention for a while. A departure from the scale looking stuff I'm usually attracted to.

Those shocks look awesome, I guess you haven't driven it yet?

Nope haven't done more than spin the motor up on a crappy nimh pack... I'm away at the moment so aren't able to finish installing the esc but when I get I will and hopefully ill be able to order my lips pack and start running this bad boy.

So where are we at with this? Did it explode and burn your house down due to half assed soldering? Is it a beast that tears up the track? Or did you run out of sponsorship dollars to get it going?

So I was away for all of last week with work, I was driving as opposed to flying and honestly I almost took it with me to work on it in the the hotel but in the end I decided not to ;)

Soldering looks great about as far from half-assed as you can get... I removed the red cable from the ESC to RX plug so that the BEC is what is providing power rather than the ESC. I need to put a tiny dab of solder back onto that plug just to keep everything connected and ensure nothing shorts then I can wire up my old battery pack and should be good to go for a test run.

I am debating something :-? unsure if I want to proceed yet, think it would look cool but would cost me like an extra 10$ so not sure if I shouldn't just stay focused rather than doing other stuff.

As far as funds well I do have two XMODs that are new that I need to list somewhere, they would help pay for the battery pack and charger but its not desperate. Also want to mod my TX to run off a lipo pack too.

Not sure what your talking about with the red cable but glad to hear the project is still continuing.