Thick silicone lube for dampening

potentiality · #1 12-14-2006, 07:05 PM

Has anyone attempted using thick silicone lube for dampening in the stock shocks?

Like a 3000 wt or so?

vinsanity286 · #2 12-14-2006, 09:30 PM

I have no thick silicone lube but my plan was this...
remove the shaft from the body and drill the lower part of the body about 2-3 millimeters deep with a drill bit larger than the shaft. (Just enlarge the hole bottom of the body where the shaft goes in)
Then fill the enlarges part of the body with some kind of silicone sealant. Once that dries you make a hole in the silicone for the shaft to go through. Then fill the shock body with the thick silicone(I was going to use white lithium grease but the silicone is probably alot better) It has to be pretty thick so it doesnt leak. I have make a model like this with brass tube and it is hard to get the silicone sealant to not leak with thin oil. After you fill the body with silicone, leave enough room at the top to pack in some silicone sealant and put the shock eye back on. Wait for this silicone to dry until you use the shock.

I think this will work excelent and provide great damping action. I am just waiting untill my lhs gets some replacement shocks in to try this out on them. Let me know if you guys think this will work and if you dont understand i will try
to further explain it or draw a diagram. thanks. Vinny

Keono · #3 12-16-2006, 05:34 PM

If you do try it, take a photo-journal of the process, and post it here. I kinda understand what you are suggesting, but pictures would help alot more! (^_^) so, if you do decite to go through with it, take a picture of all the parts/components you're using, then take it from there!

potentiality · #4 12-16-2006, 05:58 PM

Sounds overcomplicated. Im saying using like 3000wt oil and putting it on the shack shafts. They do this on 1/12th pan cars dampeniing tubes and king pins and on m18s shocks.

RCdabbler · #5 12-16-2006, 07:34 PM

I put the bearings in my truck and put some Xmod grease I had laying there on the shock shafts but it needs to be a bit thicker to do anything.
It still bounces a bit not as bad but I also put some spring collars on it to lift up the rear and stiffen it a bit.
I need to get stiffer springs for it, I cant wait till those come out for it.

vinsanity286 · #6 12-17-2006, 05:05 PM

Well i put my idea to the test and it worked great. Here is the link to the discussion about it with some micro t bashing video.
http://www.ripper7racing.com/r7rforu...read.php?t=525

Keono · #7 12-17-2006, 11:23 PM

maybe you have some up-close and personal pictures of the new dampeners? the vids were AWESOME! I love how when it fell (free drop) it didn't bottom out! I'm TOTALLY interested in hopping my own up just like you did, so maybe you could show us the finished product? The shocks/dampeners themselves that it... great job by the way!

Keono · #8 12-19-2006, 11:04 PM

I tried... I failed... maybe I just have too big of fingers or something... or I don't understand fully how to accomplish sealing up the tube. too many factors why I didn't succeed in making the shocks oil filled... I used clear household silicone adhesive to seal, and a 70wt silicone shock oil. Who knows... I'll wait till aluminum hop ups come out.

vinsanity286 · #9 12-19-2006, 11:22 PM

Keono, I will try to get some close up pictures. What exactly didnt work with your shocks? My micro T still bottoms out unfortunately but hopefully when I make my final version of the shocks they wont bottom out. They still do an excellent job of controlling the bounce though.
Speaking of aluminum hop ups, I made an aluminum front c hub. The piece that the upper and lower control arms are attatched to. Next up is an aluminum upper arm and then an aluminum lower arm. Im going to get some pictures up on ripper7racing tonight if I can. Hopefully I can sell my aluminum hop ups if people are interested. Vinny

Here is the link to the thread on the c hubs. http://www.ripper7racing.com/r7rforu...read.php?t=564

Keono · #10 12-20-2006, 01:28 PM

The silicon sealant didn't work very well. the outer casing of another shock can be seen here. maybe my seal is crappy, but you can see on the completed shock, it's covered in silicon oil because the seal just doesn't seem to work. the first "attempt" you can see in the bottom of the picture, the silicon simply came off......... damn.... anyway... that's what happened. I included a picture of the sealant and the oil. the oil is a 70Wt.

vinsanity286 · #11 12-20-2006, 04:12 PM

Hmm, maybe the shock oil is just too thin. Try to put some grease in the shock body instead like I have. Also remember that when you seal off the top of the shock you want to first collapse the shock shaft all the way so that there will be no pressure in the shock. If you seal the top of the shock with the shaft extended and then go to compress the shock, there will be no room for the shaft as the body is already filled with oil.

Keono · #12 12-20-2006, 05:20 PM

I was putting the sealant in the cap of the shock body, and fully extending the shock with the body filled with oil. when I capped the body, I put the screw in and left it so it would dry together. was I wrong in doing that? I've never done anything like this before, so I have NO idea what the heck I'm doing. I can repair anything I break on my Mini-T, Mini-LST, Revo, E-Maxx, but I've never made any custom parts for them before. any advice you can give, other than, "wait for hop-ups" (lol) would be awesome!

vinsanity286 · #13 12-20-2006, 06:32 PM

Keono, yeah that was the wrong thing to do. Think about it, if you fill a cup full of water to the very top and then put an ice cube in, the water will spill out.
Now if you fill the shock body with oil when the shock shaft is not in the body, and then cap the shock body, when you compress the shock and displace the oil with the shaft the oil it has to go somewhere. It cant spill out the top so it blows out the bottom seal.
Try filling the shock with oil, then slowly push the shock shaft up so that it doesnt push all the oil out of the body. then cap the top. I can't gurantee that it will seal but it will seal much better then the way you first did it.
If you dont understand I can draw a picture in paint or something. Vinny