i have had my original s-10's for about 3 months, and i have been noticing lately that i get a bit of a wobble before the spring kicks in on both the front and back trucks. its not to much of a problem, but if i don't have my foot in the exact middle (from side to side, not lenghthways) of the board, it will drift to that side alot without the spring having any effect. i have tried tightening the trucks, but i still have the same problem, so i think its my bushings, if anyone knows what is wrong, or better yet how to fix it, i would love to know.
If you have tried tightening them, then I'd say it's your bushings. Take them apart and inspect the bushings for cracks.
I don't know all that much about Original trucks but don't they have springs instead of bushings? Anyway if that is the case I think you can replace the spring...But again I have never worked with Originals.
Do not over tighten Originals!
You will mess up the bushing.
Originals bushings are the white plastic part
inside the housing.. There should be at least 1/8"
sticking out past the housing... You may have messed
up the bushing. I take mine apart regularly and grease them
with lithium grease.. There are a few things you can do to your Originals
to make them perform better and smoother...
But I assure you that over tightening is number one cause
of problems with them...
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1. Original is finally correcting the mis-named "bushings". They aren't bushings, they're "cams", and that's what the company is going to start calling them shortly.
2. You're feeling dead space before the springs kick in immediately after tightening the trucks, or does the dead space creep in as the trucks work themselves loose?
If you have dead space only after the trucks work themselves loose, then the solution is to keep the trucks from loosening. Mine loosened up by themselves over time, and I've read other posts where people experienced the same thing. I solved the problem completely by:
Removing and cleaning all the lubricant off of the kingpin;
Cleaning all the lubricant out of the pocket the head of the kingpin sits in;
Installing a star washer in said pocket under the head of the kingpin;
..and putting it all back together with a brand-new locknut.
Cost me less than a buck, and my trucks have not loosened one tiny bit since.
If you have dead space even when the trucks are still tightened, then you have a different problem. It might be the bushings cams as suggested above. It also might be that the locking flange that keeps the upper bushing cam from rotating has too much slop between itself and the bushing or between itself and the truck housing. If that's your problem it'll be harder to fix. Have a look, see if you can find the slop, and post pics if you need help; somebody will have an idea.
Here's the flange:
Here's the kingpin pocket:
And here's the star washer that goes in the kingpin pocket:
a) broken bushings/cams (they arent really cams either, i think bushings is more accurate. they're a low friction plastic between a rod(kingpin) and tube. thats the definition of bushing in my book.
from wiki - "A mechanical bushing is a cylindrical lining designed to reduce friction and wear inside a hole, or constrict and restrain motion of mechanical parts."
thus, its a bushing. buy extras, several sets, because they break all the time.
b) the flange, if you have been running them too loose the crosspiece wears down the notch and causes play. i cant think of a fix for this.
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b) the flange, if you have been running them too loose the crosspiece wears down the notch and causes play. i cant think of a fix for this.
I'm nearly sure this is your problems. I ride originals exclusively and this is their achilles heel. I keep hearing that Original is going to redesign the trucks and fix this terribly engineered aspect, but I haven't seen any new ones.
'Solutions':
>Buy new trucks constantly. Once the aluminum starts to 'wallow' out of this area even slightly, the slop increases. This used to be a problem for me because I rode Originals at higher speeds than most.
>replace the lower (small-holed) flat washer with a slightly thinner nylon one. This will pull the tab further down into the notch for any given spring tension and bandaid fix it.
> use a machine shop to completely redesign the truck the way it should have been to start with.
There was a post in another thread called "getting tired of originals" in which originals has said that they are working on a new truck with early prototyping done
hey dude, i had the same problem and infact today i fixed it up. most of the time like everyone said its going to be the bushing aka "cams". i just took them off today because i was having the same problem and it turned out my "cam" was broken. take everyones advice and dont tighten up the trucks too tight.
a) broken bushings/cams (they arent really cams either, i think bushings is more accurate. they're a low friction plastic between a rod(kingpin) and tube. thats the definition of bushing in my book.
from wiki - "A mechanical bushing is a cylindrical lining designed to reduce friction and wear inside a hole, or constrict and restrain motion of mechanical parts."
thus, its a bushing. buy extras, several sets, because they break all the time.
b) the flange, if you have been running them too loose the crosspiece wears down the notch and causes play. i cant think of a fix for this.
Cranks,
The "Cams" in Original trucks have nothing to do with lining or reducing friction,
more than any other piece of the trucks, the "Cams" actually are the friction generating mechanism in the trucks. The fact that the Cams are made of friction reducing material does sometime trick people into thinking they are there to reduce the friction generated by their rotation.
The Cams convert left to right energy into up and down energy, most times changing the direction of energy will generally create friction, and the Cams in Original trucks do just that. The fact that they are inside of a hole is purely coincidence and has nothing to do with insulating the mechanism or reducing friction.
I pasted in a URL of the wikipedia version of a cam.
If you have seen a pair of Original Cams you will notice the similarity to the cams in this picture, the only difference is Original cams dont just convert energy from one direction, they convert it from both right and left.
Again,
Original cams have nothing to do with insulation or reduction of friction.
As far as breaking the Cams,
You will not break your cams if you have them adjusted as Barf does in the above pictures. At least not for 6 to 12 months (which is generally about the lifespan of a traditional bushing). If you break them within six months, give us a call and we will get you another set.
If you are coming from a randal clone; paris, etc, I suggest going with a heavier tension spring to end up with a setup you are more comfortable. Going with a heavier spring will give you the resistance you are used to from a traditional bushing truck and also will likely keep you from over tightening your trucks... which is the one and only way to break your bushings.
We always encourage debate, however, the term bushings does not, in the skateboard context or otherwise, correctly describe the function of the Cams in Original trucks.
Original trucks getting loose
