Kraton One little shim makes a big difference

[Vanning]

I sacrificed a piece of plastic feeler gauge to shim my steering. What a huge difference. I just found the Shim that fit perfect, made the exact size hole I needed to fit around the shaft , and bolted it all back together. Making the hole is tricky.... I had to burn the hole in it. A drill would just rip the material. I could have maybe filed down the shaft but didnt feel like going that route. This shim removed massive amounts of slop from the steering. You can't have too thick of a shim or it locks it all up. That's what was good about having these feeler gauges.

 

[Kauaiguy]

View attachment 4742 I sacrificed a piece of plastic feeler gauge to shim my steering. What a huge difference. I just found the Shim that fit perfect, made the exact size hole I needed to fit around the shaft , and bolted it all back together. Making the hole is tricky.... I had to burn the hole in it. A drill would just rip the material. I could have maybe filed down the shaft but didnt feel like going that route. This shim removed massive amounts of slop from the steering. You can't have too thick of a shim or it locks it all up. That's what was good about having these feeler gauges.

I used the shims we use for the satellite gears,clamped two together with vise grips and used my dremmel to make the holes big enough to slip over the piviot shaft.Perfect fit as far as thickness and no more slop.

 

[Vanning]

I know.... I don't like what I used but it was all I had for testing, sure did prove to me that it is worth doing. I would recommend it. I now know the measurement of the shim size needed. So part 2 will be cutting the exact size shim on my lathe . Just because it will be cleaner. I'll fill you in on part 3 also.

I had another idea also. I could make a stiffener arm from the top of the servo arm and tie it into the frame near the shock towers. It would remove that slack. It would require some lathe work. I would need a ball on top of the servo arm but the hole would have to be filled with a spacer. I do have most of the hardware needed. That will kill 2 birds with one stone. Slack removed from stock servo and the plastic mount would not move. . The servo bolt may be hard to keep tight. Maybe not. (See pic)
Just the shim we did... is a great improvement alone. I'll send it home today with an aluminum spacer and try to finish part 3 of my slack removal attempt. I have a micro lathe...it makes shims and spacers well for odds and ends of the rc hobby.

I got some work done on it. It seems to work well. Way less movement with the servo mount and servo . No negative found yet. It's much more precise but not too stiff. The normal steering won't move the mount around now. But if some flex is dished out from the other direction. It looks like it will give a little. I'll have to run hard with it to test it.

 

[Vanning]

Wow... this seems to be pretty good. For zero money... this mod looks promising. The servo doesn't move back and forth much at all. Built from all spare parts. Here is a pic of the spacer in the servo horn. I cut it on a micro lathe. Washers would work also.

 

[Corider]

That looks like a slick, pretty well free mod. I will be interested to see what you think when you drive it. It seems like it should hold it in place well. Nice work!

 

[CL-Audio]

Does this mod eliminate the need for a new servo or servo housing? What exactly are you guys doing here? Vanning is the spacer the yellow thing? You only had to put it on that one side?

 

[Vanning]

Does this mod eliminate the need for a new servo or servo housing? What exactly are you guys doing here? Vanning is the spacer the yellow thing? You only had to put it on that one side?

Just removing play from the steering. I never purchasd a different servo or metal mount. I may not need to spend the loot yet. Normally I would but let me first mess with the stock stuff..... just because it can maybe be helpful. I am sending more voltage to the stock servo already with my ESC.
I did notice the stock mount and servo moved a lot in there under a load. That means less goes into steering. I had some spare rc parts to try this.... so there it is. It's basically experimental. I'm Just seeing if I can make the stock equipment a little less sloppy. I did this with helis all the time. The only problem is... a crash could maybe push at the servo because of the added brace. It would have to be a severe crash. I have not ran dead into anything in years, so not much to worry about there.

I only put that yellow shim under one side. The other side is decent. (Less slop) or not much. Maybe it will result in a more positive steering. Less slop is still good anyway (less rattling around and wearing out early).