Strengthening FS2 front shock tower/bulkhead

[/tobys]

Any tips/suggestions for beefing up the front shock tower and mounts?

Raced at Cov today and the car was really good but broke a shock tower and then the front tower mount and top diff cover in 2 separate incidents and neither were especially big offs.

thanks in advance.

[Darren Boyle]

DMS Partz 4mm Carbon Shock Towers and Alloy Tower mounts if required

[njc11]

In my experience i would stick with the kit towers etc.. simply because of the added strength of the CF towers it will only shift the break to somewhere else

Try putting the bolts for the shocks the other way round.. i use a caphead screw pushed through from the front with the nut on the back. This way when you do have a roll etc the screw isnt digging into the track surface etc which could have been what was causing your break!

[RogerM]

First off Toby are you at Cov for the last MAM? If so please pop over and I will go through the car screw by screw with you, not many people in the UK that have run ZX5s longer than me! My car has a few "tweaks" on there which can be done in a couple of minutes, nearly for free and make a great car unbelievable!

The broken front tower issue USED to be a real pain in the bum but I've <runs off to cuddle a tree> not broken one in 2 years now.

There are a couple of tricks, all found the hard way (and repeated at the rear of the car just to be certain);

1) The screws which go through the tower mount and gearbox top into the lower trans case are FAR too short in the kit. I run 20mm cap heads (less likely to round than buttons) through there, you may find that you need to shorten the screws a fraction or space under the heads a little as they can touch the wishbone and bind it up!

2) The single screw that connects the tower mount to the gearbox top makes the assembly too rigid, I have an O-ring between 2 washers on mine, just nip it up so the o-ring compresses and it locates without being solid.

3) Shock screws need to be reversed. Use button head screws so the button is forward .. order is

screw head - shock bush - (spacer if used) - plain nut - tower - washer - nylock
this has the added benefit of making it much quicker to change upper shock positions
(note:- if you do the same at the rear with the shocks on the back of the wishbones as I run them make sure you have near zero thread showing past the nylock!)

4) Tower choice, the LA216B (4 hole tower) is now available and has extra material in the webbing ... not seen one of these broken (yet)

Now I use the ali 3-racing tower mounts but if you want to them remember they are 1.25mm shorter than the FS/FS2 mounts so will need spacing up. I actually have 2.25mm under mine as I find the car realy benefits from having the extra up travel that raising the tower by 1mm and lengthening the shock shafts by 1mm too gives ... so much more consistent on heavy landings, especially if you have to have lock on!

In terms of strength my car is basically an FS2 now with the LA216B tower, aluminium rear hubs and 3 racing ali tower mounts and it's strong as hell. I can only remember having 2 breakage related DNFs with the car in the last 12 months, 1 was a front kncukle set (on a MASSIVE jump at Ardent) and 1 a rear shock shaft after being hit full wack by an Ansmann X4. The others (about 6) have all been the same thing ... wheel nuts giving up!
With the original tower I used to run a GRP brace from the damper bolts down to the tower mount bolts on the rear of the tower but I don't feel this is needed with the LA216B towers, also as Nick says either a brace or a carbon tower (unless cleverly designed ) will just transfer the loading to the next weakest area ... always more expensive and harder to change!

[kyoshogit]

Great write-up Roger.

[RudeTony]

I saw the Carbon towers that Darren at DMS has on his car and they are just gorgeous!!

[njc11]

Nice looking granted... but will cause the break elsewhere.. ive tried the AC ones which are also very nice

[RogerM]

I have to agree with Nick on this one ... that is why I didn't put my towers out there and went back to kit plastic.
Mine had significantly more fore-aft give in them than most (without loosing stiffness in the important direction ) but still led to increased breakages.
I have some other ideas to try but for now LA216B seems difficult to beat, if your still worried remove the outer hole as I can not recall ever running it anywhere other than in testing (personally prefer a car with more shock inclination on the front than the rear).

[Darren Boyle]

Not broken a single, tower, mount, or any bit related to them as a result of them being on there so far (nor has Kirk either who runs one from here too) and we BOTH crash plenty (just ask Tony after Moto Arena last weekend - especially the HUGE jump of the kicker he done that landed "wrong" with my car - with no ill effect)

[/tobys]

Originally Posted by DMS Racing

DMS Partz 4mm Carbon Shock Towers and Alloy Tower mounts if required

Any chance of some piccies Darren?

[RudeTony]

For sure if you change the base support like Darrens nice blue one, i am sure there is no problem and for sure would be stronger - and yes I was driving Darrens FS2 real hard at Moto Arena and yes I crashed it plenty LOL - enjoyed it actually, more so that not even Darren realised I was driving it like I stole it - LOL

I also would NOT remove the outer hole Roger as it is a set up hole that many do run on - Ellis does, I do and others - the new towers have an additional hole on the inner part and not the outer part - mainly for dirt but also for additional strength

Both options are good
The carbon and the new style 4 hole (add B at the end of the part number) Bling for Darrens and B for normal - LOL

[/tobys]

Originally Posted by RogerM

First off Toby are you at Cov for the last MAM?

Yes planning on being at Cov for the last MAM. I'll pop over and we can have a chat.

I really enjoyed the car and it had good pace on the day. Cov can be a car breaker but I don't think the crashes that caused the breaks justified the damage!

Cheers

[Gordonm]

Try Wes j on here, see if he' s making towers for the Kyosho-if not I'm sure he would!-Will see him fri at Bridgford and we're at Cov on Sunday so may be able to help (or not!) cheers, Gord..

[RogerM]

There are carbon towers available for the Lazer, thats not the issue ... it's if people want to use them.

[Gordonm]

Wes's are from lexan, a bit more flex than carbon...

[RogerM]

Originally Posted by Gordonm

Wes's are from lexan, a bit more flex than carbon...

How resistant are they to flex in the normal loaded direction?

As I said, I don't think there will be a problem for people running the LA216B towers, much more material at the points where they might have broken.

[/tobys]

Thanks for everyones input

I ran yesterday with the Alloy front shock mount and the B-spec shock tower and didn't suffer any breakages - and had a couple of "offs" that were at least as bad as the ones that broke the car the previous week.

I also turned my shock mount screws round as suggested in earlier posts by Nick and Roger.

As a final thing, and not certain whether necessary or not, I boiled the plastic parts for about 5 mins and then left to cool naturally in the water.

So far, so good

[brooksy]

For the last three rounds at worksop I've broken a front shock mount,so for yesterdays final round I did as Nick suggested and put the cap screws in from the front. Not a single breakage all day!.

[RogerM]

Glad to see that people have got this one licked ... the Kyosho stuff amazingly strong and a few little tricks of the trade is all that is needed to make the cars bomb proof

[Ted Maul]

Just curious, but why would changing the shock mount screws round make it less prone to breakages?