What's the difference between 12LW and 12LS ?

[RC10th]

I'm sure this has been discussed many times before but what is the difference between the 12LW and 12LS? They share the same chassis parts, is it only the fixed front and dynamic strut?

I bought a car 15 years ago which I was told was an LW, trying to research it it looks (or looked) more like a 12L.

Where does the LC fall into the mix?

[terry.sc]

The LW and LS are identical apart from the front suspension.

I bought a car 15 years ago which I was told was an LW, trying to research it it looks (or looked) more like a 12L.

Easy to tell, the original 12L is the only one that didn't have a damper post brace across the rear of the chassis, and the only one without an oil filled centre damper.

Where does the LC fall into the mix?

The LC came between the LW and L3. It was a full redesign with new narrower chassis and completely new rear pod, T-piece and diff and the L3 was just a development of the LC. The only differences between an LC and L3 are a new chassis plate, a new shock and 3 bolt wheel fittings.

[RC10th]

I think it was a 12L as it had a simple ball cup, wire and spring ride height adjuster. I bought 12LW parts for it and converted it to a LW. I'm thinking of converting it back to 12L though, unless I can find a good 12L.

Did the 12L have two bolt arms or three?

[terry.sc]

The 12L had 2 bolt front arms.

[GoMachV]

I don't have a 12LS (going to have to work on that lol) but here is my 12L and 12LW side by side, the LS adds the strut front end and the chassis has extra holes up front for the body posts.







Oh, and my LC

[integra22t]

would love to dig into that bag and start putting it together

[RC10th]

Looks like I'll have to accumulate a few parts and rebuild my LW and add a 12L to the collection. Where do you guys find all this old white 12L stuff? I've been looking for ages and not come across much.

[GoMachV]

It's not easy, I bought out a old hobby store and was lucky to find many white pieces. Some were acquired here and some on eBay. Body mounts seem to be my Achilles lol

There are a lot of differences in the rear pod and such, I would agree- keep the LW and look for a L. Wish you needed a 12i or 12e I could help with that haha

[Incredible_Serious]

I don't have a 12LS (going to have to work on that lol) but here is my 12L and 12LW side by side, the LS adds the strut front end and the chassis has extra holes up front for the body posts.

Looks like the one I just got is an LS....

RC12LS.JPG (99.43 KiB) Viewed 4511 times

RC12LS.JPG (99.43 KiB) Viewed 4511 times

RC12LS2.JPG (88.59 KiB) Viewed 4511 times

RC12LS2.JPG (88.59 KiB) Viewed 4511 times

Although.... it does say that on the box.....

Sometimes I would be lost without these forums..... thanks guys!

Alex

[RC10th]

Hmmm, if you ever want to sell that LS let me know I bought mine new and dyed it black when it was the "cool" thing to do, now I'm kicking myself. I'll have to dig my 12L's out tonight and see what I have to work with, too many projects on the go though so I grab whatever I can get as it pops up. Unfortunately this makes for many slow progressing projects.

[RC10th]

While I'm on the 1/12 kick due to parts finally being reasonably available did the LC use the standard dynamic strut?

If you take an L3 and change to an LC chassis what else is different? Standoff brace?

[terry.sc]

To convert an L3 to an LC you will need
4504 Chassis
4456 Axle
4458 Diff hub spacer
8321 Axle spacer
4540 Left side hub
4446 Shock spring
and a Delta shock
Everything else is exactly the same.

The axle parts are needed because the L3 changed the rear wheels to a 3 bolt fixing from the LCs two bolt, and Associated finally got around to making their own centre shock.

[RC10th]

Here's the start of my 12th scale rebuild beginning with my 12LS. I purchased this car new and have been wanting to restore it for the last 5+ years or so. Hopefully with a lot of parts swapping and a bit of luck I'll end up with a nice 12L, LW, LS, LC, L3 and L4. I've got most of the parts for everything but no doubt will need some bits. I know I dont have any white 75t spur gears which I think will be near impossible to find. Many many thanks to Alex, Philip and Niki for parts to make this a possibility.

So far after tearing down the LS and parts car we have a clean chassis, a pile of good but yellow parts, and a pile of hardware for it. Somewhere along the way I've updated the rear axle on the LS to an L3 axle, so I'll have to convert it back and use the L3 axle for something else.

All the carbon cleaned up well and looks new, all of the steel parts still look new and most of the alloy parts just need a quick polish to bring them back up like new. Unfortunately I'll have to peroxide the nylon, I was hoping not too but it needs to be done. The car should come up a treat when done. These are simple cars but still a lot of work to restore.

[RC10th]

I made a bit of headway today and so far so good. All of the axles I have at the moment are Stealth II's and later, not exactly correct but not too out of place either. Hopefully the axle I have coming is a standard 12L axle.

The white (hard) plastic parts cleaned up well with simple green and the nylon parts have been put into peroxide today. I don't have much hope for the left bulkhead as it's pretty stained, probably from traction compounds etc.

[RC10th]

What is this motor mount from?