Dalump

Hey all,
This is my first posting on O.S.O.

I bought a 30' Wellcraft Excalibur Cat with Kaama Surface drives last September(03) Ran it twice before boating season screeched to a halt.
The 2nd time out, got the ol gal up on plane.. it took for ever to plane out. She doesnt have trim tabs.. Sounds like it wouldnt make much difference anyway. She acted very squirrely once up, very erratic tipping from side to side and difficult to steer straight.

Had a problem with starboard engine over revving at launch and also once on plane. Come to find out, the dipstick that owned the boat previously had two different gear ratios between the left and right drives. Ive got one drive apart that has the proper gears 1:1.3 and now need to find a set for the "bad side"... Anybody know where I can pick these up? Nobody around here has ever seen such a drive let alone has parts for them.

I spoke with Dan at Archer Marine in CA. this past Monday about the rubber boots and gear sets... They don't have either in stock and they are pretty high dollar.

Any help would be appreciated.

Todd
[email protected]

jaf302

Casale engineering made the gears in mine. They are the boys that make v-drives. I used to have there phone # but when I sold my flat bottom all the papers went with it. Paul

kaamacat

Dalump. I have the exact same boat, have for 5years now.

I can't help you find some gears per-say (although fishead on this site might have something, he just ran through a situation like yours with a mismatch gear set) make sure those things are tied together tight.

Biggest problem I had was that the inside rams (tie-bar setup) would not hold due to bad internal seals. Simple and cheap to fix. Biggest pain also was getting the air out of the system. Until then, yes, steering was bad.

Right now, all rams (steering and "tiebar") rebuilt the boat steers great, runs flat!



Bob

Dalump

Hey Bob,

When I bought this thing, I knew it was going to be a "project", but it has awesome potential. It was relatively cheap compared to others I'de found.

On the drive gears, I just figured out an hour ago that the drives do have matched gears. Input 26T, Output 23T. (just took right side off and apart) hmmm.. Now what? Transmissions not matched?

You mentioned the rams going sour.. Since I have both drive off now, I'm going to go through all 6 of them. One outside Starboard steering ram has a leak and the trim cylinder on the Starboard side must have bad seals.. The last time out, the drive kept creeping up on me.. Was a pain in the butt to drive.. You dont happen to have a spare steering ram do you? I've got one that an idiot welded the end cap onto. Looks like crap (but works)

Also, the moron that I bought this thing from had a cheesy tie bar set up on the drives.. When loading onto the trailer after the first time out, my buddy about puked. The tie bar was bent into almost a horseshoe shape.. The damn drives were nearly pointing at each other.. I had a local machine shop make me one out of 2" stainless with 3/4" threaded joints on the ends. I dont think it will happen again. Havent had it wet since then.


i'm waiting on the port side prop shaft to get back from the chromer's. It had a little wear on the very end where the 3 end seals ride on it. The rest of it looked great. Thought I'd better take care of that while it's apart.

Todd

cuda

Here's what my steering looks like.

Dalump

Hey Cuda,

With mine being a CAT, the center mount steering wont work. Mine has these kind of "oval" shaped steel mount brackets that have a clevis on each (left and right) side for the dual hyd. steering rams to mount to..

Plus, my drives have both been shaved to remove the fin over the prop. throws a massive amount of water, but a bit dangerous to be swimming around. Especially in the muddy water of the Mississippi River. You can't see 12" through the murk.

What are the red arrows pointing to?

Are you a Cuda freak or what? Ive got a cherry 1970 big block in the garage. Sweet as could be, a blast to drive.. So many toys, so little time!

kaamacat

Dalump. If you snap on my profile, goto my webpage, then photo album and find the kaamacat there. Thats what the boat setup looks like. (basically 100% as it came in 1986, colors and all)

The rams are super simple to work on and replace the seals........I think about $15 per side and they just twist apart. (gotta be real careful because of the fine threads on the end caps). The original rubber internals just fell apart......... the new stuff is urethane.

There is a wiper seal on the very end to just keep it clean, inside the cap is another that must face inwards to seal correctly, and on the plunger are two more back-to-back)

As for the TD502's, they should be 1:50 or 1:54's. Now, it is easy to spin one up if you're trimmed to high. Sounds like once you get the rams all rebuilt, and know
each side really is level outside (and on the dash level) you'll get a better read on a problem.

And as I babble, I'd close with this. Boat needs about 30mph to stay above water, but does not handle well until about 50mph (3400-3500) when there is more air in the tunnel and the sponsons are not catching the waves.

And nope..............no spare stuff. (sorry).


Bob

Dalump

Dang Bob, That's a pretty boat! Mine's just plain white all over. White and teal interior. I was hoping to get it painted this past winter and just never had the time.

Does yours have those stupid little fake louvers on each side of the bow deck? Damn things are always getting debris stuck in them that leave stains.. I keep my boat in the driveway during the summer (covered 90% of the time) and we have a ton of trees constantly dropping junk.

Where did you end up finding seals and whatnot for the rams? Some place like "Motion Industries/Berry Bearing" or do I have to go to a pneumatic/hydraulic supplier?


I'm surprised you have a tandem axle trailer... 8500 lbs bone dry is a bunch of weight for 4 tires. What do you pull it with?

on those twin discs... is there an easy way to check gearing? You mentioned 1:50/1:54 . i'm wondering if maybe I have one of each?

Todd

kaamacat

Dalump.....Yep I have the louvers on the deck. Even with the boat covered dust still gets in there.

The seals you can get at a hydro place, in urethane. Putting the ones on the ram/plunger itself is like Al Bundy putting a size6 shoe on a size13 foot.

As for the trailer, that is the original trailer, but came with 16.5" tires.

Tow it now with my wifes 3/4Ton Avalanche. (Although my GMC Dually was much more stable, but thats gone now). The Avalanche pulls it just fine though.

On gearing........hmmm.......... dont think you can unless you tear it apart. Is there no tag on the unit top?

don

It might not help much but my boat was stolen and I still have one Kaama with boot and shaft seals for sale. Problem is is that I have 1.189 gears in it. Housing and everything is in great shape. I would like to get $1200.00 for the drive and boot if interested. Call Don at 561-324-4393 in someone wants to buy it. This is a short shaft and only from the transom out