21 Skater Brakeing Gear Cases

[BANJO]

Does anybody have a fix or an idea on how to make a gearcase housing hold togather on single 21. I am running a single 300X and just broke the skeg on my third sportmaster. I know these boats are known for this but does any one have a solution? What about the bigger Skaters running triples I have heard of problems with there center gearcase? I do run my motor high looking for speed and I am sure that does not help, but that is why I have the boat. Any knowledge would help. THANKS

[at100plus]

I was hoping that only CLEs were doing that. You never told me you broke a skeg. How fast were you going when you lost them and what happened, did it hook bad?

[at100plus]

I was hoping that only CLEs were doing that. You never told me you broke a skeg. How fast were you going when you lost them and what happened, did it hook bad?

I sent you PM in response to yours.

[catfish123]

Were your sportmaster cases modified in any way, welded on torque tab, etc????

[BANJO]

This time I got lucky the skeg did not actually brake completely off but close. I was out runnning long speeed runs for over an hour solo but with two other boats. best speed ever of 105.5gps. I pulled the boat out and noticed oil from the lower unit. It cracked 3/4 away across the skeg from back to front on both sides. The crack on this one was high and actullly seeped oil from the case it self. It also cracked from the rear mounting stud down to the cavitation plate on one side. Merc racing said it is the harmonics coming from running a 3 blade so high on a true tunnel hull. They think that running a 4 blade will cure this problem. I talked to Skater today and He agreed that a 4 blade would run much smoother and not put so much stress on the lower unit. Any ideas? I thought about getting rid of some of the torque tab to relieve some stress, run a 4 blade and see what happens. Each of the lower units broke very similar and they were factory sport masters from merc.

[at100plus]

Guess I'll stick with my 4 blade!

[Markus]

I remember reading about someone else trying a short skeg Sportmaster gearcase (the type for twins) on a single-engine Skater to solve that problem, but he got blow-out problems and could not go fast at all.

Perhaps a four-blade propeller, maybe even a four-blade with a large barrel, would fix the blow-out problem, though.

Or you could get an extra engine and use short skeg gearcases.

[at100plus]

Mine doesn't even hint at blow out with my 300 and Sportmaster. I'm running a 4 blade too.

When I first got it I tried it with the 2.5 and CLE it blew out first run.

[Brad Zastrow]

I had the same problem with my triple setup on a cat. The right hand case were snapping the skegs off. The left hand would be fine. The difference was the the left does not come with the torque tab on the skeg. Made a few calls and was told get the "offshore case" It is just like the left hand with no tab. Since I can assume you have hydraulic steering it will compensate for the torque steering. However you will notice a little more torque on the wheel. You can also just cut the tab off with a straight vertical cut. My opinion is the leverage of the tab is tearing the skeq off from back to front in a crescent shape tear. It only seems to happen on rough water boats that load and unload the skeg. The triple offshore cat racers were having problems with the center lower unit because it is hanging in the clear tunnel with no sponson to protect it. They were wrecking the mechanicals jumping in and out of the water like madmen.

[at100plus]

Hey Banjo

Do you get my emails?

Do you have a torque tab?

[Markus]

Brad,

The problem is that even if you do not feel the torque steering through the hydraulic steering, the gearcase will still not be running straight through the water on a single engine boat, resulting in increased risk of blow-out.

I am running a single 2.5 EFI on cat as well. (Or I have just mounted it). I have a short skeg Sportmaster on it right now, because that is how I bought it, but I have a long skeg case waiting that I will change to after the first test drive, because I have heard some bad blow-out stories from friends with the same boat.

[BANJO]

My new case with factory tab came in today. I am going to reduce the size of the tab but not eliminate it and see what happens. I also ordered a 4 blade over hub semi cleaver to try and reduce the torque on the lower unit. I have never had a hint of blow out with this boat know matter how I run it. I would hate to eliminate to much and start a whole nother problem. It's going to be a guessing game from here still lookiing for 108.

Mike my email has not worked for a couple months, sorry.

[Liberator25]

I have a twin merc 300x set up on a liberator 24 which is a skater clone. My right hand motor has a built in torque tab (left hand rotation - left motor does not have a torque tab). My boat will sometimes tend to walk the tail of the boat a little to the left at speeds over 100. My thoughts are that the torque tab is a part of that due to everything else being cancelled out (I rotate my 4 blades OUT). Can the built in torque tab just be ground off? Seems that would work, but I was wondering if others have done this.:confused:

[Markus]

Yeah, you can just cut it or grind it off.

Or you could try swapping with someone who has the other type of gearcase.

(I have one, but it is for 2.5 liter engines)