There are a number of items that you can buy in bulk and save just tons of money. "Litespeed" type battery connectors, 4-40 screws and 1/8" diff balls. A call to a industrial electrical supply house should net you the battery connectors and thescrews and diff balls can be found at ball bearing suppliers. How much will you save? Connectors will cost about $.75 each and diff balls about $8.00 per 1000. 'Nuf said?

I use to buy my Diff Balls from Bicycle shop. They are awesome..and sometimes I could find bulk bags of 144 balls for .99c

McMaster-Carr for things like Body Clips, nylon tie straps, and so many other little things like the 4/40 screws..button head, flat head, metric motor screws...

Thanks for the additional ideas! Yes, there are a lot of things that can be bought in bulk and save you a ton of money.

I have tried those diff balls from bulk bags. They are ok for an entry level racer, but the extra smoothness of balls designed for r/c cars can give you a little extra through the turns. The price is not even comparible, it just depends on whats more important to you.

It depends on the quality of the bulk balls that you purchase. Just as in retail RC products you have different levels of quality. You don't think that the RC manufacturers that sell quality diff balls buy them a dozen at a time? They buy them by the 1000s in bulk too.

I understand how wholesale works. But, we are not talking about diff balls purchased in bulk from a hobby shop, they are from a bicycle shop in this case. I haven't actually tried, but I don't believe it would be very easy to buy 1000's of balls from your local hobby shop. A fellow racer I know gets his in bulk through GM. They say "precision" on the package. His diffs are never smooth and free, but he saves money and thats what is important to him.

There are many distributors of "ball bearings". They have a number of different grades of balls and the vast majority are called "precision". I find it doubtful that GM uses very high grade balls. When I ran oval a lot I would buy them 1000 at a time and they were always better then what you could get from the RC manufacturers.

A quick google brings up http://www.cerbec.com/TechInfo/TechSpec.asp
While these are ceramic you can see they make them in 7 different grades.

There are no ball bearings made just for RC Cars. They are just too expensive to make for quantities that low. A lot of people fail to understand how small a market that RC Cars really are.

Could anybody post a link of an online shop wherefrom I could get those ceramic balls in bulk?

http://www.mcmaster.com/ they have alot of stuff. diamond lathe bits delrin fiberglass graphite lexan and any tool you can think of

You can get the same nuts used to hold the wheels on a Losi xxx-t at the hardware store for a about a dollar for a dozen.They look exactly the same to me..:)

http://www.mcmaster.com/ they have alot of stuff. diamond lathe bits delrin fiberglass graphite lexan and any tool you can think of

9576K24 Silicon-Nitride Ceramic Ball 3/32" Diameter, Grade 5, Packs of 5

unit price: 7.67$ pack

I can't find out how many balls you get for 7.67 but nowhere close to 1000, also no metric sizes ( I need 2.4mm dia for my diff which is close to 3/32" but not the same) :confused:

Ceramic is MUCH more expensive then chrome/steel balls.

Google is your friend.

A quick Google finds 1000 Carbide balls for 40 bucks and 1000 chrome/steel balls for 12 bucks.

9576K24 Silicon-Nitride Ceramic Ball 3/32" Diameter, Grade 5, Packs of 5

unit price: 7.67$ pack

I can't find out how many balls you get for 7.67 but nowhere close to 1000, also no metric sizes ( I need 2.4mm dia for my diff which is close to 3/32" but not the same) :confused:
It reads on their site that this is a pack of 5 balls...............

you might check with EA motorsports he should be able to help you out on the 2.4 mm diff balls

i know this is old but boca bearing in fl sells the smoothest bearings i have ever had and they do sell1/8in balls but have not tryed them but they have hi grade from what i understand they are smoother than most diff balls expext for ceramic

What size would be the best cotter pin for body clips?

Avid (http://www.avidrc.com/) has most of the sizes required for R/C for $1 ea.

I looked far and wide for a thread on o-rings to use for your shocks. I remeber reading on here somewhere about how size them up. Could someone help me?

Thanks

There are a number of items that you can buy in bulk and save just tons of money. "Litespeed" type battery connectors, 4-40 screws and 1/8" diff balls. A call to a industrial electrical supply house should net you the battery connectors and thescrews and diff balls can be found at ball bearing suppliers. How much will you save? Connectors will cost about $.75 each and diff balls about $8.00 per 1000. 'Nuf said?

I HAVE BEEN USING LITESPEED CONS. FOR 15 YEARS THE ONLY PROBLEM IS THEY ARE HARD TO INSTALL 12 GAUGE WIRE AND FORGET IT IF YOU GET NITRO ON THEM THEY ARE LEXAN AND WILL MELT ASAP I HAVE BEEN USING TRAXXAS PLUGS AS OF LATELY I LOVE THE WAY THEY WORK AND I HAVE NO PROB WITH NITRO FUEL GETTING ON THEM.

I know it's an old thread, but I'm glad I looked here. I forgot all about mcmaster's website. Thank you dave.

mcmasters is great.. I ordered some stuff off of them yesterday and it arrived today by UPS ground, cant beat that at all for standard ground shipping..

prime fastener sells all the screws for our cars in bulk cheap