DC-4's let me down....

[Narly R]

Well I went racin with airheadeddunner, and it was awsome, until I raced, about 1/2 lap threw the race I jumped a table top and was only like 3-4 feet of air, and landed on my nose too much, and both my left ball-joints broke off, and I flipped over. Right before the jump a guy passed me, and I lost concentraction, and when i hti that jump, I wasnt paying attention, and I just nose dove, but shouldnt have broke those off.:mad: I think I got bad ball joints though, cause they DONT look strong at all. :rolleyes: I bent my tie rod too....

I am going to be calling LSR

Just sharin my story.

[airheadedduner]

Saw it happen and had a look at the ball joints myself. Narly was very luckey that he didn't get hurt worse. His mom got it on video. If the ball joints wouldn't have broke he would have been fine, but they just snapped. Anyone else having troble with there dc-4's? I was shocked that it happened. Good luck with those man, I think LSR owes you ball joints for both sides and at the least a new tie rod and an apology.

How old are the balljoints. I've seen em snap several times on people..:( Seen it happen more on the MX track than anywere. It's almost a good idea to replace them once a year if you race MX a lot.

[airheadedduner]

Narly will have to answer for sure but I believe they are new. The DC-4s just came out not long ago.

I emailed LSR about them breaking just to see what they would say. Especially since I was considering them when I go to aftermarket a-arms and swingarm. After their response I will not be buying from them. In a nut shell they basically said that the ball joints were probly fatuiged and that they just failed on that jump because of it. That the cristalized look is normal in a breakage. They said they would have to look at them before they will if at all decide to take further action.

[muff]

well that just plain blows...I've already added lonestar to my not buy from them list, their axle didn't hold up to my expectations :o

from your story they should have held up to that...my friends housers a-arms has hit the ground straight up and down :eek: he ended up fracturing 4 vertebre in that crash :eek2:

[KandK952]

hmmm... I haven't really ever seen LSR balljoints break, they are 16mm thick if I remember correctly. I know there are companies that make their balljoints 12mm thick and I have broken several of those.
They might break because of the way you have your camber adjusted. You should have the bottom balljoints threaded in almost all the way if not all the way so that they don't take as much stress... being that is already a big stress point. I would suggest threading them in further because when I had trouble breaking balljoints (not LSR) that is what the manufacturer recommended and it worked wonders.

[Narly R]

Well I need to correct myself. I got looking, and my camber and caster were not set right. So that coulda caused it. They are new though. But I got new ball joints and a new tie-rod at cost. Lonestar said that I was the 2nd story they have heard about like this...:rolleyes:

I just am going to get everything PERFECT this time. kinda my fault I guess.:mad:

[JOEX]

Nice to hear that LSR is 'helping' out a bit:) How far off where your settings?

joe

[Narly R]

Well the main thing is that my top arm has to be a little behind the bottom arm, and it was a little infront. :mad: I skipped that part....:(

[boogiechile]

Top arm joint leading (in front) bottom joint - that would make your caster negative and it would be much easier for the tire to turn sideways on a landing, causing it to break a joint much easier. Did you notice it jerking on the bars any on landings? The handling with neg caster is darty and twitchy too. most ball joints break from reaching bind though, especially a top joint. I would check to make sure that the joints do not reach the bind point before the shock reaches full compression. Of couse if the bottom joint breaks first there is nothing to stop the top joint from reaching bind.

[Narly R]

I didnt notice any jerking in the bars.... everything seemed fine to me. I loved them! Ill be back any going. You learn from your mistakes. Ill have the Camber and Caster right this time.

[AtvMxRider]

Well atleast you didn't get hurt.