Kyosho Mini-Z Buggy Brushless MB-010VE 2.0: Building and Installing Big Bore Shocks (MBW037)

Описание: I bought these red aluminum big bores shocks (MBW037) almost a year ago but never came around to them. I finally convinced myself to stop procrastinating.

Each MBW037 package comes with two full shocks. I got two packs for my buggy. This red version comes with 300wt oil. Interestingly, Kyosho also makes a gold version, MBW037G, which comes with 3 pairs of springs in different stiffness, but no shock oil. These are the things that are in each pack, and the first page of the instruction manual. I got a few tools out ready for building these shocks, including proper o-ring grease to help seal the oil shocks. The shock bodies look great, but they're not threaded for fine preload adjustments. The top cap of the shock body isn't sealed by a rubber diaphragm. It's simply an o-ring. That's not ideal.

The first step is clipping on the tiny e-clip. Tip: Double check the plastic piston isn't rubbing the shock body wall, like this. Use a filer on the edge of the piston until it doesn't bind. Apply o-ring grease on the small o-rings for the bottom of the shock. Leave around 7mm of shock travel. The stock spring seems a bit soft. It will need some preload collars to compensate. I may also order the MBW038 spring kit.

On the left is the stock buggy oil shock. To be fair, it works well. In theory, the aluminum big bore should be smoother, more tunable, and more durable.

Time to fill the shock with oil. These shocks came with 300wt oil (equivalent to Losi 27.5wt). As mentioned earlier, the top cap is sealed only by this thin o-ring. Apply ample grease here. Fill the shock with oil the same way we do with any other oil shock. Put in as much oil as possible, and make sure to remove air bubbles. Always screw on the cap carefully as not to mess up the o-ring. Also, because there's no diaphragm, some air inside the cap will remain. I find that it helps to put some oil in the cap too. The front is done! They look really great with the matching anodized red color with other alloy parts.

So far so good, right? Actually there's a serious problem. The bottom ball cups over the stock 4.7mm ball studs often bind. As you can see here, the shock doesn't move freely at all. This will cause problems such as incomplete suspension rebounds and other handling inconsistencies. I thought long and hard on how to free the ball joints. The dremel has to come out in the end.

Mount the ball stud to the dremel collar, on the slowest setting. All I need is take off a thin layer and polish the ball. I start with 800 grit sandpaper. This step will remove the stock black finish (likely a bluing layer). I'm not looking to remove much material. I just want to maintain the spherical shape. To polish the head to a smooth finish, I'm using 3000 grit sandpaper. (This feels so satisfying)

The slightly shrunken and highly polished ball comes out great. The result of sanding the pillow ball is dramatic. The shock body moves freely and still without any slop. I repeated the sanding operation in other three corners too. Keep in mind that the buggy suspension action is already very smooth.

This suspension action is looking amazing! After completely freeing up the shocks, the suspension rebounds readily. It no longer get partially stuck anymore, even after a light push. The rear is also very plush, with clean rebounding action. Previously, the left rear shock had the most binding and now it's perfect. With the provided springs and oil, I feel the big bore shocks are softer than the stock shocks. In the future, I will put thicker oil. These drop tests were done with stock shocks in the rear.

Enough wrenching, let's see the buggy being driven, even on just a flat surface like this where the shocks don't have a ton to do. So far I like how the shocks look and feel, though they did require some elbow grease to work perfectly.

This is Sammy and thanks for watching!

Big Bore Shock Set (red) MBW037: https://rc.kyosho.com/en/mbw037.html

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