Dusting off the ZX5 to be reborn!

[Benh]

Hi

I am currently racing an S4 but have my old ZX5 waiting to be re-born! It has the KMC conversion (chassis) (it has all the cells down one side like the original chassis); the Atomic Carbon top deck, and Front and rear shock towers -other than that all is as standard.

After reading the recent thread about the new ZX, I am really curious to what the ZX - SP is? Is it much different from what I have listed above? I looked online but can't see from the pics much of a difference?

After lending it to some newbies at the club for them to try out RC racing for the first time, the front and rear shock towers were broken. For strength would you recommend
1 - AC towers;
2 - ZX-SP new plastic towers; or as I have seen,
3 - AC stuck to original plastic towers (oh the choices! : ) )

And finally, looking for a good set up for bumpy grass track. My preference of driving style is Front one way, and would love to hear from a ZX5 Master if it's preferential to go one way on shaft with dif or one way all the way?

Looking forward to bringing it back to life! And have a new 5.5 GTB system to put in there too

[jim76]

when i ran the ZX5 the best balance was one way layshaft and diff up front. The one way diff was a little too aggressive for me.
Also on the front run a standard shock tower with an atomic one sandwiched behind, should make it fairly bullet proof then.

How have you got a KMC chassis with cells in one side? KMC only made a saddle chassis unless i missed something?!! Or you meant Atomic Ion chassis?

also with the brushless power, make sure you shim the diffs correctly (moving once shim from the inside to the outside to tighten it slightly was usually pretty good) and set the slipper to slip a little instead of locking it up. Otherwise you will go through quite a few gears!

[Benh]

oops - You are right - the Ion Chassis.

I like the tip for the brushless! And I will go for the Sandwich option! Maybe a slice of shock absorbing rubber cheese in there too

Time to get some shock towers on order and go through some of the set up sheets and see what you guys have found to work well.

[jim76]

must confess i never got on well with the Atomic chassis, i found the kit chassis gave the car better grip due to a little more flex.

You may want to consider the SP conversion for the front of the car as this improves the handling and response up front. RogerM will no doubt give you plenty of advise on this as i switched car before it came out.

If you stick with the standard front end make sure you run the 10 deg castor blocks. Can't remember my full set up, but it was pertty close to Nathan Ralls who i think posted his on here. Silver springs all round, 35wt front, 30 rear. one way layshaft, 10 deg castor blocks. No antisquat spacers at the rear end. that's all i can remember off the top of my head.

[Benh]

Hi Jim - Thanks for the feedback. I'll keep my eyes open for RogerM's posts - I noticed that he does seem to know his ZX minerals

What is different about the SP front end?

[jim76]

it does away with the C hub and moves towards the same design as the other leading 4wds. The C hubs were always the weak link at the front of the lazer anyway. Roger can explain the geometry improvements better than I!