One of the most over looked aspects of rc suspension tuning is checking to see if your suspension is working freely and not binding up.

So, you have worked hard on all the different aspects of tuning your rc suspension and you think you have just the right setup.

But when you go to the track for testing your rc vehicle still does not perform or handle the way you want it to.

One thing that many of us forget to check is to see if our suspension is working freely.

That is to say is it binding up at some point? Or is it sticking at another point?

Taking an hour or two to check your rc suspension to see if it is working freely is time will spent.

It can and will result in you making suspension more reliable and produce more consistent handling.

Let us first start with checking all control arms.

Remove all wheels, shocks and sway bars.

Place your rc vehicle on a work stand so all control arms are hanging freely. Your control arms need to above your work table and not touching your work stand.

Now start on one corner lifting the control arm up to the top of its range of travel. Let it fall. If it falls freely to the bottom of its range of travel, that suspension arm is working freely.

But if it does not fall freely on its own or stops before reaching the bottom your suspension arm is binding.

It could be your hinge pin is binding in the control arm.

This is easy to fix. Using a hinge pin reamer or a drill bit. If you use a drill bit you need to be very careful.

For 1/10th scale on-road cars you will need a 3.0mm drill bit and for 1/8th scale off-road you need a 4.0mm drill bit.

But do double check your owners manual to see the size of hinge pin your are using. This will determine the size of drill bit.

To make this job even easier Hudy™ makes a 3.0mm and a 4.0mm arm reamer.

Plus, Kyosho™ has a 3.05mm and a 4.05mm straight reamer. These reamers makes this job much easier.



Using the correct size drill bit or reamer run it through the hinge pin hole in the control arm a few times. This will loosen the fit of the hinge pin in the arm and eliminate any binding. If you do use a drill bit, use a vise grip or pliers to turn the bit in the control arm.

Or a T-handle Tap Wrench works great. Using an power drill you could egg shape your hinge pin hole in the control arm, not a good thing to do, would cause too much play or slap.

If the control arm is just a little larger than the area between the suspension mounts, this will cause binding.

Using an emery board or a piece of fine sand paper, sand down the outer edges of the hinge pin holes on the control arm. Take your time doing this, you only want to remove just a small amount of material at a time and check fit.

If it is still too tight remove a little more and recheck fit. By just removing a little at a time you find the point when the control arm fits just right in the suspension mounts.

Not too tight or too loose. You do no want to remove too much material off the control arm as this would cause the control arm to slide front to rear and vice versa in the suspension mount.

If your control arm was sliding back and forth in the suspension mounts this would cause ill handling characteristics. So, do take your time and be careful, you do not want to ruin a control arm.

Do you run a pillow ball type of suspension?

Are the pillow ball clamps too tight?

If the pillow ball clamps are set too tight can cause your rc suspension to hang up and/or bind up.

Using an Allen wrench loosen the screws in the pillow ball clamps. Just loosen them a small amount.

If you go too far this will cause your rc suspension to be sloppy.

But, if you do go too far this is easy to fix, just tighten the screws a little.

Does the hub carrier fit too tightly in the control arm. On many rc vehicles this is where the spacers are placed to change wheelbase settings.

You want the hub carrier to fit into the control arm tightly, but not too tight. If it is too tight this can cause binding.

It is not very common, but I have seen it.

If the hub carrier is binding, using an emery board or sand paper, just remove a small amount of material from the hub carriers mounting point.

Just remove a small amount a check fit. You are looking for that just right fit again. So just remove small amounts and check fit.

Do the same on the rear hub carriers and again be careful, because this is the wheelbase setting options on many rc vehicles.

The last thing you are going to need to check is all the ball joints.

This is a common area for binding on a rc suspension.

The bad thing is there is not much you can do to correct it.

An option you do have is to pop on and off the ball cup a few times till it starts to free up.

This is just a trail and error type of thing. Pop the ball off and then pop it back on and check it to see if it still binding. If so, try it again. There is no set rule to number of times it is going take to free it up.

One other option you have is to remove the ball joint from the suspension and place it in your power drill or Dermel and polish it. Using a rag and some metal polish. This again is a trail and error type of thing. Polish a little reinstall and test to see if it helped.

Most often I try polishing the ball joints as not to weaken the ball cup. But I know many other rc racers that just pop the ball cup off and on and have success freeing up the ball joints.

It does not matter if you run on-road or off-road all rc suspensions have become very precise pieces of equipment. All rc suspensions are engineered and designed to be performance enhanced.

So do take the time and check to see that your rc suspension is working freely. This will let your suspension work to its full potential. Plus, it could just give you that little extra to win that big race!

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