Front bearings - all the same or two sizes?

[RaceBash]

I notice a little resistance on my front wheel rotatation so I went to inspect the bearings. I found them to be very smooth with the pin-locking setscrew loose but they seemed a little rough as I tightened the setscrew - as if they were a litte dirty. I popped the what would be the inner seal out of them and cleaned them out. When I reassembled it felt better but still not as smooth as the rear carriers.

So, I was satisfied that things were good enough to run but made plans to replace the bearings soon. I just had a look at the assembly manual and it clearly shows two bearing sized in the front hub but the bearings I pulled out were the same ID and OD. So I have some special conversion on this thing?

Also, the drive shaft don't quite match what is shown in the manual. The manual looks like rebuildable CV shafts, mine look more like standard U-joints. They are still very smooth and show very little wear but they are not CV type joints.

 

[Billl DeLong]

I believe the CVD axles require a different size bearing if you decide to make that upgrade which is designed for smooth prepared tracks, the UNI's are for rough bumpy tracks

 

[TBuggy]

And yes the uni's do use two of the same bearings, while the CVD's use a bigger inner bearing and a smaller outer bearing. I forget the sizes off the top of my head.

 

[RaceBash]

I'll stick with the U-joint then. The smoothness of my track depends mostly on how much time has passed since the last hard rain. And having one less bearing size to keep is a plus.

I also noticed that my mid and rear chassis braces are missing. After looking around the forums a little more, it seems like many people run without those. The whole set of braces are pretty cheap but are there good reasons to run without these?

 

[TBuggy]

The added flex in the chassis (when not using the braces) can help with handling and traction. But it will also mean that you don't have that extra support if you crash so you can potentially damage more parts when not running them and then crashing. If you are a clean driver already then you may want to experiment with not running them or one or the other.