Zip drive repair

[BillV39]

I have a 98SE based system with an internal Zip 100 SCSI drive that's getting iffy, i.e. it clicks excessively when reading certain sections of some discs. I suspect that there's oxide buildup on the heads. New internal ATAPI drives are still available but not the SCSIs. I've just been given a used SCSI external drive that's claimed to work fine. I'm betting that the drive motor mechanism is the same as on my internal drive and I can swap them (I'm actually betting that all versions use the same mechanism and the differences are in the motherboards). But before diving in, I thought I'd ask here about how likely this swap is to work. Does anyone have any experience along this line? I've opened up the external case and removing the drive motor mechanism seems rather easy. Note that I've fairly sure that this is not a click-of-death problem.

Here's an image from an article where a nonfunctioning external parallel version was disassembled. It looks very similar to my external SCSI version:

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Having tried exactly the same thing you are contemplating (many years ago), I'll save you the headaches. There is virtually nothing interchangeable between the internal and external units.

 

[BillV39]

Thanks. Used internal ATAPI drives are available for little money. I think I'll buy one and either use it as such or, maybe, see if its drive motor mechanism will swap into my SCSI. It's not a big deal but I've always liked the capabilities of the SCSI controller.

To my surprise, I see that some new internal SCSI drives are listed on ebay, but at (IMO) silly prices.