xXxCellARatOr

I was just wondering, when would be a good idea to change a bent dogbone? To what extent can it be bent untill it starts to cause problems?
Reason why im asking this, is because a piece of branch tangled into one of the arms on my savage x and hit the dogbone, causing a slight bend that was only noticable while turning the wheels (the dogbone was going up and down due to its curve). I bent it back, and now its just ever so slightly bent
in the middle (hardly even noticable). So the question is, can a bent dogbone damage the diff shaft or the axle(probably at high speed), or anything else ? If so, how bent would the dogbone have to be to cause this?

thanks!

Foxy

Yes, a bent dogbone will eventually transfer damage to other parts due to its eccentricity (vibration due to wobbling), this will be especially apparent in the drive cups. Replace it asap.

amec

Also if it is bent it can pop out easier.

xXxCellARatOr

Yes, i see what u guys are saying. But as i said before, mine was ever so slightly bent, it was hardly even noticable to begin with unless u spun it and notice it going up and down. or spun it in ur hand and noticed it going left to right. and once i bent it back, its almost PERFECT. i dont think this will have an affect on anything. correct me if im wrong. thanks!

SpikeX

It might spin almost perfect when you spin it in your hand, but when it spins at 1,500RPM in the car, that will make a big difference.

nothinbetr2do

sorry if you don't like the answers your getting, but these guys are giving you good advice. whether you use it or not is up to you, but i would change it

tmdz28

plus it's a inexpensive thing to replace, and only require about 10 minutes of your time. IMO it is a good price to pay for a piece of mind in the future

SpikeX

Exactly, and getting a new dogbone might save you trouble and money later on, if you have to replace the cup joints...

stadium truck freak

too tell you the truth i have got a bent dog bone in my savvage and its really bent and i havnt had any problems with it i have new ones but cant be asked to change it (if it works dont touch till dont work) and if what your saying its very slighty bent dont worri about it
sorry to you guys that know what your doing but mine is holding up and dont replace things till are not fixeble

xXxCellARatOr

Yeah, i totaly agree with what everyone is saying. i wouldnt really mind paying to get a new dogbone. but if i were to get new ones, ide go for the HD dogbones and replace both of them, on each side. and that would be a complete waist. and even just replacing this one dogbone, it would still be extremely hard for me to scrap it with just a little ding in it.

so even though i understand and agree with what everyone is saying, im gonna have to go with Truck Freak on this one.

also, i just got my dad to help me out on this and now the dogbone is like 98% perfect. ide have to look at it for a min to see the inperfection.

just for the sake of it, ill go and take some pics of the dogbone and repost, show u guys exactly what im talking about.

thanks for your thoughts!

stadium truck freak

il post a pic of mine and show you how bad mine is . tell me if yours was worse

xXxCellARatOr

LOL, it might not even be vizible on my camera, especially since i dont have MACRO mode. camera aint bad though, its the DSC-S600

stadium truck freak

its a big curve

amec

Wait til it snaps or falls out then.

stadium truck freak

welll if it does i have a spare

xXxCellARatOr

LOL dude, is that really how bent it is? or does the picture make it even worse? why didnt u take it sitting on something, and why is it blurry? lol

here is a pic of my dogbone, and a few pics of my savage ( + the newly installed shock covers from savageshockcovers.com )

The top dogbone is an absolutely perfect one from the other side/wheel (still dirty since i havent fidled with it). Reasong why im holding the dogbone is to keep it in the bent direction, but as i said, it isnt even noticable in the camera. lol , only by staring at it would u notice that it might be slightly indented on one side from the hitting of the hammer.

What do you guys think of my engine paint job? did it after the first time ever running my truck (after tuning), flipped it on the first day LOL!!

stadium truck freak

dude . you call that bent . thats perfect 'run it like that you will have no problems with it/good job on on straghiting it out

xXxCellARatOr

Yeah, haha, i think im being way to paranoic. mostly because its my first time in the hobby and im very new to it. i have no idea what a bent dogbone is and how bad it would have to be in order for it to start doing damage. thats why ive mentioned over and over again in my posts the fact that the bend is hardly even noticable. i think my dogbone was like urs before i even bent it, think it was better to be honest LOL.

So yea, as i said the bend is almost non existant, and its only because of what the hammer did to the dogbone.

truck freak, if ur interested, ill tell u how u can get it perfectly straight. the way my dad did it, it was sooooo easy and i was surprised it actualy worked. i was thinking of doing liek that, but i didnt think the impact would be strong enough.

What do people think of my engine head paint job? hehe oh yeah and the shock covers

(X)

Cool shock covers, How'd you do the engine head though?? what did you use??

xXxCellARatOr

Yeah, im extremely happy with the way the shock covers look on the truck and how they are made.

As for the head, first off, ide like to mention that the rear portion was completely scratched and there were grooves in it. ( your probably know what im talking about, you know what happens when u flip ur truck over on pavement lol) i didnt have the full rolcage installed and TINY zip ties on, which completely snapped off upon impact. N00BY mistake.

So here is what i did. At first i was thinking of painting the entire thing Black, but then i was thinking that the layer of paint would affect the cooling process (thought maybe it would hold the heat in more). maybe im wrong. So then i decided to just do the top part. Really wanted to get rid of the extremely bad looking scratch. looked horrid and very used lol. So the first thing i did was to grind down the scratch (as i mentioned before, it was really groovy and uneaven). i used a dremel with a rotary sandpaper. this made it really easy, but just using sandpaper would also work and would come out just fine. Then i put 4 pieces of paper between the first and second fins to cover up the rest of the car and the rest of the engine head. and i also cut out a piece of round plastic exactly the size of the hole (in the centre of the head). u can use a protractor for that ( i found a bottle cap that was the exact size). the reason i used a piece of plastic and not paper was so it didnt warp when i sprayed it. u can use anything just to cover that area, doesnt have to be taped on there (the paint prolly wont get through, as long as the cover is perfectly sitting on the surface). i put papers in the gaps where the screws go in and also put a piece of tape to cover the HPI writing. then i sprayed it twice arround quickly (make sure its a thin coat). let it dry for about 1 hr. and resprayed it. the coats have to be thin, because if they are too thick they wont dry properly and also, the paint will peal off (or chip off). thats it.

and the paint i used was engine paint that goes up to something like 600F. any high temp paint works fine. the paint is holding up just fine, it just got scratched where the zip ties were placed, but thats fine since it is covered up there anyways.

stadium truck freak

that looks the nuts i just saw that i thought it was a head protector . lol . and idf i was really concered about the dog bona witch im not lol , i would put it in a vice and get a blow tourch and heat it up and get some mole grips and bend it back lol , nice work , i use very high temp paint to paint the manifold when that gets coverd in hot oil so it stains it , then sand it down and git it a coat of that paint . nice job mate

xXxCellARatOr

Haha, thats awsome. Im also thinking od painting the engine manifold when it starts looking bad, but at the moment the truck is still almost brand new. It has only been through 1.5 gallons, so the manifold has only a few spots starting to pop out. When it gets bad, im going to paint that as well. and with the kind of paint that i have, it should always keep itself in that perfect painted condition. because the paint i have actually goes up to 1200F (i confused the 650C with Fahrenheit) not 600F. I doubt the manifold gets that hot.

As for ur godbone. i think thats just wayyy to much work. all u need is a hammer and a piece of wood of the right size. itll honestly work like a charm. as i said, i didnt think it would, but when my dad did it, i couldnt believe how nicely it worked and came out.

cord arrow

Yeah, I straighten 'bones all the time. Even new, they're not quite straight enough for me....

SAVAGEJIM

I personally say do not run the bent dogbone; they are really cheap, $12 for 2 if I remember correctly.

As the first several posts pointed out, you will put undue wear on your Savage. You could try to bend it back if you want to, but the fact that the bone has been bent once, and bent again to center it again, these actions put fatigue wear on the dogbone, and it will be prone to being bent again under less forces.

In the end, do what you want, it's your Savage.

Old_Guy

We are talking about a toy car here right. Just run it..