Tutorial Blog
Rebuilding Shocks for a Vintage Team Losi XX | Step-by-Step Tutorial
Taking on a project that involves older models is not a simple task. With parts no longer being produced and the hands of time unavoidably aging the model, it takes a lot of patience and care to take on such a complex project—one that you will definitely need a hand with, perhaps even step-by-step. Luckily for you, in this blog, we are going to be doing just that—here is how you can rebuild your vintage Team Losi XX shocks:
Summary
- The Vintage Team Losi XX Shocks
- How To Rebuild A Vintage Team Losi Shock
- Watch it in action!
The Vintage Team Losi XX Shocks
The 30-year-old shocks are definitely the child of the ‘90s with their fluorescent and bright colors. These shocks are sealed cartridge shocks: one piece of alloy with a cap and the cartridge all on one end that neither has a top nor a bottom.
Equipped with colored pistons and paired with colored shock oil with colors blue, orange, green, clear, and red, it is a design unique to Team Losi, not only because of its color palette but also because of its hard body shocks and hard-anodized black coating with Teflon inside.
A Step-by-Step Guide To Rebuilding Vintage Team Losi Shocks
The shocks of this vintage piece need a whole lot of love to live a longer, more colorful life, and in order to help you give the shocks their longevity, here is a step-by-step shock-building guide for Team Losi:
Materials you will need:
- Stiff brush
- Absorbent rags/cloth/towels
- Soft-jaw pliers
- Vernier calipers
- O-ring grease/Rubber grease
How To Rebuild A Vintage Team Losi Shock
Step 1: Give it a good dust-off
Before getting into anything nitty-gritty, give the shocks a good dust-off with a stiff brush first in order to not introduce debris that might ruin the to-be freshly serviced shocks.
Step 2: Loosen the cartridge
30-year-old tools for a vintage model are not exactly easy to find, but if you are lucky and it is not done too tight, you can loosen the cartridge by hand. Modern shock tools can be used in this scenario, but with great care.
Tip: If you do not have the right tools on hand, then you are better off opening them up by hand if you can.
Step 3: Drain the oil
After opening it up, drain the oil and have a fun little moment admiring Losi’s colored shock oils. Once you have reached the end of trying to drain the oil, you can whip your Nan’s favorite absorbent towel (we are kidding), set your shock body down there, and let the oil drain out atop it.
Step 4: Get your vernier calipers
When you are left with the cartridge and the piston, get your verniers out and measure the length. For this step, what number it is hardly even matters; it is just going to be an indication of what length it should be after reassembling to make sure that the handling of the car is the same.
Step 5: Disassemble the shock shaft
Using soft-jaw pliers unwind the shock end, wiping it as you go. At this point, you are going to carefully remove the shock shaft. Dip the end of the shock shaft in O-ring grease to protect the O-rings, it should come off with no problem if you just unwind it gently.
Tip: Remember to take note of the component’s arrangement when putting it back together
Step 6: Remove the O-ring
Using any blunt, long, stick-like tool you might have, carefully pry the O-ring away from its place of rest and wipe off any dirt or grease that might be sticking to it.
Tip: For wiping, use a lint-free cloth to ensure that no debris will stick to the O-ring before it is greased.
Step 7: Grease the O-ring
Putting rubber grease in the O-ring is an essential step done in order to protect it from the shock oil; more specifically, it is done in order to stop the O-ring from swelling and absorbing the shock oil.
To grease, all you have to do is coat each O-ring very thoroughly and dump them in the grease pan itself if necessary. Make sure every single nook and cranny is coated to avoid any unfortunate accidents in the future.
Step 8: Start assembling your shock
With the O-ring cleaned and greased, it is now time to assemble your newly serviced shock. How? Well, by restacking it the way it came apart, of course! The order of things really matters in this step; one wrong piece at the wrong place might spell disaster.
Make sure your shocks are the same length as they were before! Whip out those vernier calipers and get measuring.
Step 9: Bleeding the shock
The old rule of thumb is to fill it up to the bottom of the thread and let it bleed all the air out. Grab your cartridge and hold it at the top of the shock at a 45 degree angle before plunging it in and carefully rotate it backwards until it clicks.
All the threads should be aligned, so take note of that before pushing the piston down and see the air exit, hold that piston down and rotate it. Wipe off the excess, and unwind it half a turn as many times as necessary until you find that it no longer has any rebound and is ready for tightening!
Step 10: Finishing up
After sorting everything out and making sure there are no rebounds or anything that might cause any problems in the long run, you can now put the spring retainer back and perfectly assemble the shock once. Give it everything one final inspection if you want to (which is for the best) and repeat the same steps for the three remaining shocks, and you are done!
Watch it in action!
Still a bit confused? Watch Brett as he walks you through the process on how to rebuild a vintage RC buggy shock in our video down below.
What do you want us to make a tutorial on next? Feel free to message us with your ideas!
Also, make sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Twitch!