XRAY - Model racing cars

OK so I got my new XT8 together this week and it all went real smooth. I took it out to the track today for its maiden run and I could tell I was gonaa like it right away. It ran great and handled our very rough, loose track very well.

I did run into something rather strange though. After the first 15 minutes of run time I noticed that both front shocks were showing signs of leakage from around the shock shafts. The o-ring seals I assume. I let it be thinking I must have done something wrong when I assembled them but found it kinda wierd cuz I've built and rebuild shock a million times and never saw this from a brand new shock before.

After around 10 more minutes of running The front shocks were now severely leaking to the point that I saw drips start to develop off the bottom of the shock ends and the area on the arms around where the lower shock mount was all covered in oil.

I ran the rest of the day and at the end of the day then noticed that one of the 2 rear shocks was also starting to leak.

I took the fronts apart tonight when I got home looking to see if I did something wrong but it doesn't appear that there is anything I can see. I have run my 808 with the big bore shocks since the day it was released and still haven't had to replace the o-rings in it and I have never had them leak a drop.

Anyone seen any similar issues? Or have any sugestions on what I can do to fix this. The truggy handles great, but I need to fix this. The leaks were really bad by the end of the day. I am gonna try replacing all of the o-rings with new ones and see what I get. I have a bunch in my spares bin for my 808 that I never needed.

Anything else I might want to look at?

Try using shock o-rings from your 808. You might have o-rings from a bad batch. I also smear some associated green slime inside the shims and o-rings.

Man that's wierd, lol! Ah well mate hopefully it is the end of your problems!

When I ran AE they recomended cutting a hole in the bottom of the boots or they would blow off the shocks somewhat often.Never thought they would *** :-) *** fluid out but I should have seen that coming as those shocks just plain *** :-) ***.I do have a hard time seing the vacuume created by them sucking oil out past 2 crushed o-rings though.

If new o-rings dont fix it have you thought of putting a washer in there to take up space & smoosh them even more for a tighter fit?I've had empty diff problems before but I bet empty shocks are even harder to drive.

I think what I wrote might be confusing.

The shock boot only creates a suction at the very top of the travel when the shock is bottomed out. the AE boots are thicker and have a longer straight section at the top of the boot where it slips over the lower shock cap. On the xray shock the top fold on the AE boot hangs down off of the cap with the top fold being pretty long still before the accordion section starts. When the shock compresses it pushes all of the rest of the shock boot up inside this long top fold and basically packs it solid with the rest of the boot folded up inside of it. Then when it extends from that fully compressed state it pulls a hard suction for the first 1/4 inch of travel back down. I know it sounds weird, but it really does. I can letterally hear the pop when the suction breaks.

I dont know if that was any clearer, but its pretty hard to describe. Just suffice it to say, don't use the AE boots on the xray shocks. It'll cause you a headache.


And yea, I tried putting another washer in to squeeze the o-ring harder, but it squeezed so hard it actually made the shaft hard to move. I dont think there is anything wrong with the o-rings or the seal. I'll let you know for sure after I get to race it again on Sunday. Opening day for the season !!!! Whoo Hoo!!!

Give us the latest update Jhautz when you get a chance. I just tore my rear shocks apart on my new '09 xb808 because of heavy leaking. My two fronts are leaking too. My XT8 never had this issue last year even when I put on the new big bores from the '08 spec 808. I hope it was just a fluke because I don't know what to say or do if it isn't.

Well. I didn't get to run it much. We had some wet weather this weekend so we had to race on the indoor track. Also because of the weather the turnout was very small so we didn't have enough truggies to race. Only 3 heats of buggies and only had 5 truggies total showed up. I did run it for 10 minutes or so during the practice sesion before the racing started and yes I already see leaking on 2 of the 4 shocks.



I tell ya. This is ridiculous. I know its not something I did now. I went over those things with a fine tooth comb the last time.

Also, since the last post, I noticed that my diffs were leaking!!!! WTF This thing can't hold any fluids. I rebuilt those with some silicon o-rings I got from mcmaster carr and they seem to be OK now, but I didn't get enough run time on it to really tell for sure.


Did Xray change o-ring vendors? I have owned a number of xrays in my day and have NEVER had leaking issues like this before. Now on this truck everything leaks. I really don't want to deal with this pain in the butt. Who do I need to call to get new o-rings sent to me? Or better yet new shocks and diffs. I would think this would be covered under the warranty of a Luxury Premium Race vehicle.

I'd like to know if EVERYBODY is experiencing this? If so, I think I'll hold off purchasing one until it is fixed, as I'm just racing for fun this year and having leaking everything isn't fun, plus I won't have time to be mucking around to fix things that shouldn't need fixing.

Cheers