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My Xmod mods
Alright, this is gonna be a looong post so bear with me. I've been messing with my Xmods a lot and I just wanted to share some of the mods I've done since you guys got me into this in the first place =) I hope my explainations are clear enough...
Front End Stuff
Increased suspension - If you look at the beige chassis section, the tabs that the steering knuckle slides into has a rounded plastic ring molded on top that the knuckle rides on when the suspension is fully extended. If you file that ring down slightly, following the angle of how the knuckle sits (it's at a slight angle like \ if the front was facing left), you can get more travel. Be careful though, filing will make it thinner and thus weaker, so go only as far as you dare. The bottom tab of the steering knuckle may need to be filed in a similar fashion in order to not get hung up on the tie rod, depending on how much you took off the chassis tabs.
Reinforced steering knuckle - Anyone's who's run an Xmod in a parking lot etc. will notice the bottom of the steering knuckle breaks and you lose the screw. Ever noticed how it breaks? It appears that the screw head gets caught on a rock (um, pebble?) and snaps the plastic post of the steering knuckle from about as far in as the screw is. I reinforced the whole plastic post area by shortening a motor mount screw from my spare parts car. It should be long enough to reach the area where the bearings press in, but not rub against the universal joint if you're running AWD.
Steering increase - I've found two methods. First one is a chassis mod and more like a minor tweak. Second is electrical (soldering required) and tests out great at the bench but hasn't been test run yet. The first method works best with RWD while the second should work for any setup. Some people may have found a post on another forum where the author heated and bent the ends of the tie rods to have the poles at the end of it sit nearer to the front of the steering knuckle holes. You can get a similar effect and tighten up some play by gluing something in the side areas of the chassis where the tie rods rub against it and the black part of the front assembley. I snipped some tiny peices from small nylon zip ties and crazy glued it. The problem I've discovered is that the clearance when running this mod and the AWD isn't so good. When turning full right, the tie rod may rub against the differential. If you just want to only tighten up the play in the steering, you can glue the shims to the black part of the front assembley. The other method I discovered tonight involves soldering a resistor to the pot on the steering servo. A 1K ohm resistor (1000 ohms) connected between the ends of the pot (the part with 3 wires going to it) seems to work good and is a common value to find. It'll allow you to move the steering horn to it's stops (and from the sound of it, tries to go beyond) but there's enough adjustment from the remote steering range trim that you can get it back to stock maximum range or slightly less. You may have to trim the tabs underneath the tie rod for wheel clearance. As I mentioned before, I haven't tested this mod on a running car, I dunno if it changes the feel of the steering besides bigger increments and tighter turning radius.
Suspension Tweaks
Noticed how with the same springs in front and rear, the rear always seems to be softer? This is partly due to the fact that the front suspension has the springs installed more compressed than the rear ones (making the spring preloaded). You can add some preload to the rear if you assemble the spring without have the ends of the coil snap into the damper peices, though this does make it hard to bolt onto the car. If you want to have less front preload, take your front body mount tab off and shave the ring that is around the hole where the springs sit in. This may or may not help, on my Skyline it let the spring extend out more when installed, but barely removed preload from my Supra. I've seen this from someone's post here, but you can out some grease on the rod of the damper to smoothen and slow down the action, though for me it attracts a lot of dust. Dry lube such as powdered graphite may work instead.
For all the 5 and up cell modders out there...
I personally don't like anymore than 5 cells on account of the handling (though the torque and speed are lots of fun). With the cells mounted above the motor, or on the ceiling of the body, it makes the car extremely top heavy. The cars will flip when cornering fast in certain conditions as is, with the extra cells it's almost impossible not to. If you don't mind looks, try mounting the extra cells externally in the rear or front, but mount them LOW. This way you get your speed and don't compromise handling as much. This is what I did on my test RSX (now the parts car). On my Supra and Skyline, I've been able to modify a 2 cell holder to 1 cell and mount it on the rear of the chassis so it's low and mostly hidden. The holder will need quite a bit of trimming and you may not be able to use all the body kits, nor will it work on all bodies (the RSX is too short in the rear from what I've noticed).
Random stuff... The RSX's front body mount tab can be used on the Skyline and is better designed IMO. The Supra seems to have the strongest overall body, but front tire clearance in the wheel well could be a problem. They need to make some joint cup shafts from something other than plastic =P
Now it's off to bed =)
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Hybrid Mode
