I have not attempted to remove the rubber membranes at this stage - it's been done before by others, but you get an impression of the manufacturing processes - the rubber membranes appear bonded to the assembly, and the flanges then retained by the other "half" of the sphere when massive machines then make the return flanges of the 2mm steel... this is major stuff: the cost of the manufacturing equipment must be huge. A "remanufactured" sphere, if anyone is crazy enough to undertake this, would have to be made in a completely different way to reduce the tooling costs... but I digress!
Here's the lower part of the internal damper:
It isn't entirely clear to me how this is inserted into the sphere (Dieter, do you know?) - but this is as far as I got with the disassembly. I plan to cut along the welded section to reveal the detail of the internal damper: this I think will be the most revealing part of the investigation!
Incidentally, I have not yet dissected my failed standard unit - but for comparison, here's one that Dieter took apart earlier - first, the upper part of the internal damper assembly:
![Image](http://www.mgfcar.de/cut_unit/dk_cut7_1944.jpg)
And the lower section:
![Image](http://www.mgfcar.de/cut_unit/dk_cut16_1962.jpg)
So far, everything looks exactly the same...
More soon!
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif)