ZX-5 , what goes down first? or often

[Thomas P]

Sorry for my eng, but i have some Q´s about the ZX-5.

The car in my eyes looking real good, but the front/rear towers looking little to weak? do they breaks often?

What is the most common part that will be broken?,arms,c-hubs,rearhubs,towers,chassi etc?

Im planning to change brand(running the BJ4WE) since im the only guy @the club with this car...and every one saying that the ZX-5 is a walletbreaker in parts...but i think it is a driverstyle to

what is the + and what is the -

What is the things that will be needed for this one o get it hold together

how is the tranny,slipper?

Please al info about it would be very good.

Best regards /Thomas

[Mr X]

i have been running my lazer for half the season and so far i have broken 1 c hub, 1 front D holder and a front tower. all of those from doing stupid things like going full speed of a jump and screwing up. the only upgrades i ever needed for this car are the aluminum shock tower holders, front shock tower support (homemade) and i upgraded the rear main diff balls to associated carbide. so far i havent broken anything or i didnt have to maintain anything. the drivetrain is sort of set and forget for me. the bevel gears dont strip as long as you shim them, i ran a mamba 7700 in mine and it was fine. the slipper i dont know about because mine is locked out i think because i never hear it. so in the end it really does come down to your driving style because i have broken those small parts and another guy with the same car broke like everything.

the one thing negative about this car is lack of set ups for north american tracks, i havent found too many.

[jim76]

the car is very robust from what i have found. ensential upgrades are;
front alloy hinge pin holder
front alloy shock tower mount
carbide/ceramic diff balls

other great items are the atomic carbon front shock tower - sandwich it with the kit item to make it twice as thick, never breaks then.
also fit 10 degree front hubs as these really improve the handling.

you can add other nice bling items uch as the associated blue turnbuckles and titanium screws but these aren't essential.

make sure you shim the diff properly. move an extra thick shim from the inside to the outside of the diff to mesh it slightly tighter than the manual, then you will have no trouble. Also set the slipper to slip a tiny bit, never lock it up.

[KyoshoK]

because of the very low buying price of the zx5, there are alot of new drivers who drive it, and also crash alot. then it looks like the zx5 breaks alot.

dont worry the zx5 is very strong

[Thomas P]

This is what i wnted to hear...many thanks to you guys for this info..hope il get my BJ4 sold then...

[Coastal]

The alloy shock tower mounts are not worth the money! I broke 2 sets
Reverted back to kit ones and they last a lot longer!.
Running the car since before xmas and the towers were the ony thing that broke-once I had sorted the spacers on the rear diff. To start with I was going through the rear gears almost every other heat. You need to get the mesh really tight (added 2 extra spacers) and make sure the slipper is set correct (loser rather than tighter) and the car is a dream. Parts are cheap and readily available.

[jim76]

God knows how you've broken the alloy mounts, unless you got very poor quality ones.
And you don't want to shim the diff TOO tight. no extra spacers are required, just move a thick shim over to the outside. I run a 4.5 sintered brushless and have no problems at all with gears.
Don't grease the gears either, just put them in dry, they just grind off a little powder instead of a thick grinding paste with lube.

[Coastal]

Originally Posted by jim76

God knows how you've broken the alloy mounts, unless you got very poor quality ones.
And you don't want to shim the diff TOO tight. no extra spacers are required, just move a thick shim over to the outside. I run a 4.5 sintered brushless and have no problems at all with gears.
Don't grease the gears either, just put them in dry, they just grind off a little powder instead of a thick grinding paste with lube.

Believe the shock mounts were KMC, they were the split style from DC Racing. The first were replaced FOC, second waiting for updated version.
The quality of the alloy was very poor indeed, broke after a big jump/drop which the car rolled end over end. Funnily ennough the replaced std ones seem less vunerable.

As for my rear diff it does need the extra shims. The front is built as per kit and have had no problems. The rear with kit shims only rips itself to shreds, had a couple of long time off roaders with experience of shaft drive set the shims for me only to go in the next heat!!!!!!!. And yes we tried moving the kit shims in just about every configuration you can - since we added the extra shims I have had virtually no problems, have never used grease for the reasons you mention. also have small shims between the diff casings so the bearings are not nipped when tightening (an old trick from the days of the Yokomo YR4 series of touring cars).

The Lazer with these settings performs very well - as good as cars costing double.

Don't get me wrong I feel the car is excellent, I just found I needed the extra shims to make the transmission almost bulletproof

[frogger]

Hello! I'm new here. Based in Coulsdon (London, UK for Johnny foreigners )

I've recently returned to RC racing after a break of a few years and got myself a Kyosho Lazer ZX-5 (cheap secondhand unbuilt kit swung me around!).

I run a Mamba Maxx 7700 motor so it's FAST! Too fast!

So far I have broken:
Front suspension holder - replaced with the Kyosho aliminium version
Front shock base - replaced with the newer beefed up plastic part
Pulled ball out of the front knuckle - used the opportunity to change to the 10degree knuckle/hub front setup
Torn 2 wings to pieces

I love the car. For the price I couldn't find anything compareable. Still early days but getting used to it, might even enter a race soon.

[KyoshoK]

my original diffs have been going for 1 year now, 100+ heats already. still 98% condition.

the instructions is only a guide for where to put the shims, every gear box, bearing, and diff is slightly different, so every diff is going to be shimmed differently.

[Mr X]

my gearbox gears have also been good to me. never had a problem. i comletely avoided the manual on the shims, i didnt even look at it. i went out and got the extra shims for it and shimmed it according to what i learned from running nitro. have the least backlash possible but still have some. since i put the car together initially i have not really done anything to it, it just runs every race day.

[Greg]

I also have broken a KMC shock tower mount. Diff gears were a problem initially, but I now have that sorted. I had the slipper too tight and was very harsh on the gears. If you are stripping diff gears, check that as well as the shimming. I've broken 2 front D mounts and a rear and have replaced the front with alloy and also a rear arm.

We have some very large jumps and when I broke the rear arm, it was about 1.5m high and about 5m long in the air. Most people thought it was a 1/8 taking the jump. I surprised myself too, must have just got an excellent line and drive.

[ulrich]

Originally Posted by Thomas P

Sorry for my eng, but i have some Q´s about the ZX-5.

The car in my eyes looking real good, but the front/rear towers looking little to weak? do they breaks often?

What is the most common part that will be broken?,arms,c-hubs,rearhubs,towers,chassi etc?

Im planning to change brand(running the BJ4WE) since im the only guy @the club with this car...and every one saying that the ZX-5 is a walletbreaker in parts...but i think it is a driverstyle to

what is the + and what is the -

What is the things that will be needed for this one o get it hold together

how is the tranny,slipper?

Please al info about it would be very good.

Best regards /Thomas

My son and I both running the Lazer, we have broken a few front shock tower, I use the alloy holders, my son use the latest plastic version and I mean he broke one of these and about 3-4 towers. I will say it is not needed to have the alloy tower holders in this week we have made sandwich tower (plastic/atomic tower).
You have to replace following parts
diff balls to tungsten or ceramic
front d-brace to Kyosho alloy brace
Titanium Turnbukles
Screws.. original screws are very poor

Rumours says a new car will be released in the next two months, maybe will it be a good idea to wait to after the World Champion in Japan and see what happens.