Fixing a saggy bottom

[Silverstalker]

Hi guys...My dog has a saggy bottom?? let me explain

I got the walker bulldog H/l standard model no frills but recently I have upgraded to metal tracks, metal drive wheels, metal gearbox, RX 18, proportion smoke unit (still working)...I have gutted the hull and made the wight distribution nice and even etc etc, so its fairly meaty, but it is so saggy on the right side now it may as well have no springs on that side, the left side is drooping a bit to!

I have removed the swing arms and stretched the springs a little to beef it up but didnt work, I cant find any metal suspension parts fo it on the internet and have no real machine equipment to try and fabricate something better in place of the plastic parts?

Its 'quite annoying after all the pennys spent the now it rides really bad and looks horrid??


So anyone got any cleaver ideas what i could do to sort this issue out once and for all....

cheers fellas any and all help will be great

[Silverstalker]

Never mind I fixed it.....

[jonger]

Never mind I fixed it.....

I would be interested to know what caused it and how you fixed it as i have a couple of bulldogs I'm modifying at the moment, it might help me to avoid the same situation.

[Silverstalker]

Ok fella... first off I notice that on my bulldog before I fixed it that it had 3 thicker springs on it in random places??

on the rear left it had a thick one and on rear right had a thin one it was all over the place....and when i prssed down on the hull and compress the whole lot and then let it bounce back only the one side came up, after adding alot more girth to my tank lately, metal tracks, gear boxes etc it could no longer handle the weight at all, so here is what i did

in order

1 remove the pins from the top of the suspension (use soldering iron on the inside of the hole to heat them up and slide them out)

2 very very carefully on the suspension unit pull the plastic sheath back (the black cylinder) that the spring sits against till the spring
is fully compressed right down... then lift the inner part out (hook it out at 90 degrees as it has a little hook on the end) BE WARNED these little inner bits often brake so squish that spring down good so you get lots of room to get that inner bit out

3 go to halfords they sell a box of springs with exactly the same tension as the this random thick ones I found on mine....
in that spring box there are 8 longer springs with the same width as the original. i just cut them down to size, but left a little extra on it for a bit more tension... fitted all 8 from rear to front (4 a side) and used any remaining original strong ones for the front

and now it has no sag at all.... and suspension still works great


So basicly...I fitted slightly longer slightly thicker springs from a box of assorted springs from halfords
If you are still stuck and need some pictures to help out, I will get some on here for you HTH