Confirming kit shock build
 

I've seen some videos on YT but want to confirm with some of the experts here on the kit shock build, particularly the bleeding part.

I plan to be using the pen spring mod.

1. Fill the shock with oil up to near the top?
2. Exercise the piston to get the air out.
3. Let sit for awhile to let the finer bubbles rise to the top.
4. Put cap on.
5. Slowly push piston in until oil starts to flow out of bleed hole. Cap bleed screw.

The part I'm not sure about it #1 and #5. With particularly #5, do you push the piston until it "bottoms" at the top or stop when you first see oil coming out of the bleed hole. If when you first see oil coming out, wouldn't that depend on how much you fill it to in #1?

Re: Confirming kit shock build
 

Push the shock shaft all the way in, screw bleeder screw in while holding shock shaft all the way in. Too much oil in the shock will limit travel and cause the shock to hydro lock.

Re: Confirming kit shock build
 

Thanks! So how much fluid should I fill the body with before performing the bleed the air out maneuver? Half? Three-quarter? To the brim?

Re: Confirming kit shock build
 

I fill mine to the top of the shock body or just a bit below before putting the cap on and bleeding them. Yes, a fair amount will bleed out but hold a rag on the shock to catch it.

Re: Confirming kit shock build
 

Fwiw....Before you add the oil, reassemble the shocks with the pen spring mod and fit them to the Capra and see if it achieves the amount of lowering you need. When I did this I found the drop was a little too much and ended up cutting some coils off the pen springs. One of the Youtube videos I watched of this Capra mod, the guy doing it even said it dropped a little too much.

Better to do this now then to have to drain the oil and go through it all over again.

Re: Confirming kit shock build
 

King, thanks!

OTT, great suggestion and saves for a potentially messy redo! I'm going to use the springs from the "pack of 8 pens" at the Dollar Tree store.

EDIT:
These are the pens I got since I needed some blue pens.

https://www.dollartree.com/inc-clipc...t-packs/172538

Re: Confirming kit shock build
 

I used some "Marriott" hotel pens LOL. The springs looked fairly average in size but I think I trimmed close to a third off the spring. My goal was to get the lower links perfectly even with the belly pan with the battery in place ready to run without having to crank down on the outer spring adjusters.

Enjoy the Capra. Very capable rig.

Re: Confirming kit shock build
 

LOL!!!! Since you are in PA and I'm in NJ, you know what I'm talking about if I said I was going to bum some off TD Bank. Their pens are everywhere! But because of the pandemic they closed all their lobbies and only were doing Drive Through. "I would like to make a deposit and can you give me 4 pens?" :lmao:

As soon as I bought that pack....you guessed it, they opened up their lobbies and tons of pens everywhere! :D

Looks like shock filling will be my last step! :)

Again, thanks for that great suggestion. I'm not sure if I'm going to run 2S or 3S so final weight is unknown and all over the place at this point until everything is in.

Re: Confirming kit shock build
 

Great advice OTT. I did mine twice. First time the springs were too long and stiff so it limited articulation. Checked every pen in my house and found one that was soft and good length. Then I ended up going to 5 or 6 stores to find that exact pen. Oh, the lengths we’ll go to to get our rigs “just right”. Lol

Re: Confirming kit shock build
 

Seeing as how the Axial folks didn't leave us a "spatial battery compartment" you'll end up filling the area with a medium mah 2S or a small 3S so the overall weight will be similar.

If it helps, I have a 4000mah hard cell 2S short pack the fills the compartment with no space left and it weights 7.4 oz if you want to use this for a benchmark for set up.

Re: Confirming kit shock build
 

Good point OTT! Volume is volume regardless of 2S or 3S. We just want to fill as much volume as possible. :)

Primarily I fly airplanes so I have tons of 3S 1300 or 2200. Don't have any 2S other than a 2S 4000 (not shorty) for my SCX10 0G.

EDIT:
BTW, what springs did both or you used with the pen spring mod? Green or Red?

Re: Confirming kit shock build
 

I stayed with the stock Capra springs even after the mod.

I've been flying planes too for decades. Don't care to count up all my lipo batteries as I might scare myself.

As we've both found out, only a small amount of the plane batteries work with the rigs. So......now I had to by MORE batteries. LOL

Re: Confirming kit shock build
 

Stock as in stock red or stock green? :) I think those are the two color sets the kit comes with.

Re: Confirming kit shock build
 

The kit comes with 2 green springs for the front and 2 red springs for the rear.

Re: Confirming kit shock build
 

Mine was an RTR but interestingly enough, I just ran down to the shop to check and mine has red springs front and rear. Hmmmm.

Not sure if Axial made a change on the RTR or ran out of green springs when they made built my RTR. LOL

Re: Confirming kit shock build
 

I just checked my kit again. I have 4 reds and 4 greens in the box. Kit was purchased in July.

LOL!!!! Well at least I know you are running reds with the cut pen springs. The red ones are less stiff than the green ones.

I believe it goes from green, red, purple in order of most stiff to less stiff.

Green - 2.41 lb/in
Red - 1.28 lb/in
Purple - 0.72 lb/in