For almost a year now I have been using one of my Abrams as a "test bed" for developing simple ideas towards improving top end scale speeds, cross country performance and durability. Some of these ideas were dead ends some exceeded all expectations and were then incorporated into my other tanks in one form or another. During the testing of the different improvement ideas this tank has been run hard and abused for many hours of jumping, hard turns at high speed, smash, bashing, crawling over rocks, debris, through dirt, sand, mud and snow. This experimenting with ideas turned a simple "test bed" tank into an off road monster that performers somewhere between a Baja Trophy race truck and a Jeep rock crawler. But the abuse of hard testing and running hour after hour has taken its toll on the hull, tracks, motors and some bearing to the point where they need to be completely overhauled or replaced.
Items being replaced:
The lower hull do to broken idler wheel mount and extensive forward hull glance impact scratches and rear hull gouges caused by the track slipping while testing running only one retainer ring. The scratches and gouging are more cosmetic than anything. The idler wheel mount is another story.
The HL 390 red motors are worn to the point that they no longer perform at an acceptable level and have lost a fair amount of toque. This is to be expected with brushed motors and the abuse these have seen. Given the history of good performance with these motors I will be replacing them with another new set of HL 390 motors.
Rear hull bearing and mount (all but exploded). This bearing and mount were from a HL Challenger 2 and were made to work/fit in this Abrams. No surprise one finally failed. These are being replace with new HL hull bearings made for the Abrams.
DKLM tracks. I finally worn a set out!! The rubber pads are worn down to the metal and they have lost a fair amount of their prior grip. The track, though abused beyond belief has never broken or failed. No rubber pads have been lost or ripped off. It is easy to say I will be replacing them with new DKLM Abrams track as they have proven to be worth every penny.
Suspension springs are being replaced with fresh ones as they have lost a fair amount of strength. I am also taking this opportunity to refine the suspension down travel stops as these are still the mismatched prototype testers.
Items being rebuilt:
The HL steel gearboxes are being dissembled, deep cleaned and inspected. At this point in their life they run butter smooth and have proven extremely durable so they are being kept in service.
The road wheels and suspension arms are being deep cleaned and repainted to match the new lower hulls paint tone.
I will be following up with photos of the overhaul and rebuild process soon, so check back.