I've finally returned to the Diplomat. I have considered quite a few options to fix the internal ring gear that provides the drive and narrowed it down to two. First is making a silicone mold of the part and then casting a replacement in polyurethane around the boss. This would give an almost exact replica of the original. The second is the one I decided on doing because I had the parts. I have cleaned up the ring gear and shaped a piece of 4mm plate steel to serve as the connector between the boss and ring gear. I will weld the boss the the centre of the connector plate and then place the ring gear around that. To stop back and forth movement of the ring gear I will drill a number of 4mm holes from the outside to the centre. Into these I will insert pins that align with and will be welded to the connector plate. I will post more pics as I progress but here are a couple of the parts as they are now. [Linked Image]
[Linked Image]