Known Baja Problems

Weak Shock Shafts
The shock shafts are made from 3.8mm rods which can bend very easily.
When they get bent they often wear out the hole that the shaft passed though in the bottom shock cap.
When the hole is worn it gets larger and the shock oil will leak from the shock body resulting in little or no damping.
If you run your Baja without sufficient damping, especially at the rear,
you run the risk of transferring any shocks to the engine mount points,
chassis and braces which will eventually lead to problems like bent chassis,
broken crank cases, broken flywheel covers and bent braces.

Solutions
Change Hyper Adjust Setting
To avoid bending shock shafts set the Hyper Adjust settings to their softest settings (largest hole),
this will help to avoid bending them, but then you won't be able to land such big jumps without bottoming out the Baja.
Using the largest hole allows the shock oil to pass though the piston quicker,
if the oil can't pass though quick enough you'll find either the shock shaft will bent from a
large impact or a c-clip on the end of the shaft will break.

Replace rear shocks
As the problem occurs mainly at the rear (due to the extra weight at the rear) it's advisable to purchase RC4WD shocks or upgrade to Phatdad shock shafts. Both of these shocks have thicker shafts that do not bent anywhere near as easily.

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Differential Case Warp
The standard differential cases on the HPI Baja 5b are prone to warping.
When the cases warp the oil will leak, when the oil leaks out your diff will wear itself out very quickly.

Using a thicker diff oil (which is normally what you want to do with an off-road vehicle) will make the problem happen sooner.

Solutions
Use 1,000wt oil until such time that you can replace the diff casing with turtle racing's alloy diff case savers.

Check the diff at very regular intervals.

Ensure you have a supply of diff case gaskets/seals and diff oil.

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Clutchbell end float
The clutch bell and pinion can move towards and away from the clutch,
this causes un-due wear on the clutchbell shaft and bearings and also causes problems when fitting after-market clutches.

Solutions
Remove the pinion and place some 12x18x0.2mm shims behind it so that when re-assembled
the clutch bell rotates freely in the clutch bell mount and so that the clutch bell cannot move towards the engine.

The shims are available from HERE (amongst other places)

If you're fitting an Elcon clutch you'll need to fix this issue by obtaining some shims and eliminating end float.

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Wheel Rubbing
The wheels flex causing the beadlocks to rub on the bottom of the rear a-arm
(also known as suspension arm or wishbone) and lower shock joint.
If left unchecked it will eventually wear though the a-arms, at the same time the beadlock rings wear as well.

Solutions
You can buy axle extenders which replace the standard hex wheel adaptors and move the wheel further away
from the a-arm, this reduces the rubbing considerably and is the recommended solution by most baja owners.

Axle extenders are available from vertigo performance and dark soul.

Billet beadlock rings
Billet beadlock rings that replace the inner plastic beadlock rings on the rear wheels
strengthen the wheel and thus it doesn't flex as much.

Relocate shock mount
It's also possible to relocate the lower rear shock mount position so that the wheel rub doesn't run the shock mounts.

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