Allright, a small info on the drive-axle donor Thiokol 2100 "look-a-like", I'm wondering how well the suspension works, since the wide-track axles are different type than ones under the Sprite. Notice the absence of the torsional springs and its seems I only way to disassemble it, is to cut the welds. Anyway, I wrote elsewhere about the cleat widths, and my target was recently to cut the cleat to the narrowest Thiokol offering. Unfortunately I calculated the work to narrow the OC-12 axle and all those cleats... Too much work! But I'm still wondering if this particular wide track suspension really works for the Sprite (different axle weight capability etc). I would like to see close-up photos of wide-track Sprites/Sprytes if they have the "springs" or not...
Have anyone else noticed how bad quality the factory welds have been on Thiokols/Ratracs? I've seen now many broken welds which were unacceptable quality.
Earlier I removed the drive-train from the donor ("2100"), they said the engine was running before the vehicle was destined scrapped.
Seems I can use the OC-12, the drive-shafts and the gearbox from the donor. Regarding the wider track, lets see...
Firstly, I decided to inspect the condition of the axle...
Inside, everything looking normal, some surface rust on contact surfaces of the gears from long standing (comes off without damage):
The left-side drop-box seemed ok..
Everything came off nicely:
Unfortunately the right-side drop box was cracked (as previously known) and came into pieces when unbolted... I'm going to need a new one. From the crack in the casting the water had entered inside the box making a big dirty mess inside:
Regarding cleaning; I'm really lucky to live in an area where are lots of companies specialicing in automotive industry contracting. My next door neighbour is a big company manufacturing parts for Audi, Volkswagen, Mercedes etc. and there are lots of good friends working at night shift who can help when I need some big machinery that is outside my resources. One example is the parts cleaning machine, what a great piece of engineering! It has saved endless nights of cleaning work and how many boxes of brake cleaner
! So, I'm getting all the parts cleaned there - shown are parts from another projects... They use some chemical which are unavailable for normal consumers so parts are really clean after the operation, and funnily smell like fresh apples
As the Ratrac is now in the garage (and not waiting outside "when I have time"), I decided to start the disassembly... Before:
The parts on front are not for this project..
After...:
This thing will need a total rebuild. I can see lots of shoddy field repairs... The basic metal is still in very good condition, if dirty.. but not rusty.
So next time we'll (hopefully) see how the donor parts and the new chassis come together! Thanks for looking, and sorry for wasting your time