Suspension Awakening
 

My revo is probably about 4 years old now. Its been beat, and misused over and over again (it's official name is "OutKast"). My suspension is showing the signs of being old. When I push the rear down, it just stays down. I've rebuilt the shocks (40WT), I've changed springs several times (I threw some purples in the rear last night...holy rebound!!!). When it was newer, the Revo's suspension was so soft and smooth. I'd like to bring it back to that. Is this a case where I need to go through and replace all the bearings/pivots? Or should cleaning and lubing do the trick?

Not that knowledgeable but i would but new bearings in at least and see what it does.

I would rremove the rear hubs, and the shock pushrods. The check the arms individually for binding, you may have a bent hinge pin.

After that, clean the hubs and the pivot balls, and reassemble then, making sure the pivot ball retainers are tight, but not binding the suspension...

and a thorough cleaning of your truck including strip down is never a bad idea. Ever been to the beach? Dirt and sand get into the strangest places!

Bent hinge pin or stuck pivot ball both sound like good advice. I've had pivot balls too tight cause the same effect.

I've had all of my hinge pins out over the last several months, and the pivot balls. They weren't bent or overly tight. I wonder if my set up has anything to do with it. I have the P1 rockers installed, and have two shims on the push rods.

Could be. If the geometry isn't correct the suspension can bind.

After looking it over, it actually looks correct to me.

We went to our normal bashing area (housing development that seems to be on hold) this morning, and low and behold they smoothed out all the dirt...AND hauled in a larger pile or crushed rock! SO our normal jump, which used to be only about 2 feet tall, is now a 5 footer. After about 20 minutes, the Revo came limping back to me with a snapped off shock rod on the front left. A quick call and trip to one of the LHS, I had a new set of GTR's with Ti rods. I replaced the broken one, and I could immediatly tell there was a difference in rebound (flipped it on its lid turning around more than usual). So I think maybe my old shocks might be past their useful limit.

A few more jumps, and it limped in again with a broken push rod on the left front. I'm guessing my balance is off on that side also - or the impact that broke the shock also stressed the rod and it just took a little longer to actually snap. Now I'm in the market for new rods. The lightweight aluminum ones that I have are obviously not strong enough (speed kills!:lol:). Does anyone have similar experience with rods? Do I need to go to Lunsfords? I see Integy is releasing some titanium ones http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXTPL9&P=7. The nice thing is that they dont look to be specific to a certain P1, P2, P3 setting like the Lunsfords. On the way home, I picked up a set of stocker steel ones to use for now - I dont think the added weight is really going to be an issue.