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The elder statesmen and acknowledged guru of the performance sterndrive, John Klumpjan started in 1968 with Carl Kiekhaefer and his company Kiekhaefer Aeromarine.
He was assigned to assist engineer Larry Lohse, who would be instrumental in developing the first Speedmaster drive (the Speedmaster III). As the company introduced the Speedmaster IV and V, more race teams were using them and they only wanted one guy to rebuild them when that time came — that guy was Klumpjan.
“I have 16 world championships and eight of those were with Aeromarine,” said Klumpjan who is now 70 years old. Among the teams/owners that demanded that Klumpjan rebuild their drives were Jerry Jacoby of Ajac Hawk fame, Dr. Bob Magoon, Tom Gentry, Don Johnson, Bob Saccenti, Craig Barrie, Bernie Little and Renato Della Valle, whom Klumpjan referred to as “The Italian Donald Trump.”
“The key to doing an outdrive right, whether if it’s a 6 or an 8, is setting the gears to the horsepower and torque,” said Klumpjan. “It’s more important than ever because of the horsepower being created.” He believes that the Dry Sump Six is actually easier to work on than the Speemaster III, IV or V because of the immense size of all the components.
The most critical part of the rebuild in his eyes is properly loading the spur and helical gears before making the final settings. He does disagree with some of his colleagues that the upper gearsets are often the first to go in a Number Six. “The only reason it would go is if something plugged the oil from getting to the upper,” he said.
He said that the most important thing owners can do to extend a Number Six drive’s life is to keep up with oil changes. After the first 25 hours, or break-in, oil should be changed every 50 hours.
PRA publication
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John K.
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“Everybody wanted to build engines or do electrical or rigging,” said Matt Gilvey. “Nobody wanted to do sterndrives because they were afraid of them. People don’t understand setting up backlash or bearing preload.”
Gilvey teamed with Klumpjan at Doller Marine in 1988. From the start, he worked on Speedmaster III and IV drives. “The Number Six came out around 1990 and Gilvey received the Mercury Marine Master Technician Award in 1993.
Gilvey said that upper gearsets take the most abuse, depending on how hard owners are on their equipment. Like his compatriots, he said that the biggest concern he has when he rebuilds a Number Six is setting the load on the two spur gears. These are the gears that sit atop the two vertical shafts in the gear case. If you don’t get the load evenly balanced between the two, the engine’s power won’t be distributed evenly. This can shorten drive life.
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Brian Jackson (former student of John Klumpjan) said that in addition to setting the load on the spur gears correctly, the pinion height and the shimming of the gears become critical when engines are putting out 1,500 hp. He said that the biggest factors in determining how often drives need to built are the power running through them and how hard the operator is on the equipment.
PRA publication.
...Larry Lohse, Tom Theisen & Fred Kiekhaefer designed, tooled & built the first (#6)Keikhaefer Drive in 1987. They introduced it privately in a Miami hotel room to prospective serious customers during the Miami Boat Show in Febuary of 1988, under the company name Drives By Kiekhaefer. By the end of 1988, they were installed on a couple of well knowns offshore boats with big power & winning races. Later, in 1990, with the Mercury Hi-Performance/Kiekhaefer merger, the K-Drive was renamed the Number Six drive. The first Number Six dry-sump drive came in 1995...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lake X Kid
Ain't exactly the way I remember it--Roy--
I worked with John in 78--
There was a NEW product--up on the 'Ledge'--
...yes gene, the yo-yo blocks came out for the first generation, non-crescent, number three ssm. great idea at the time. you know i was referencing the introduction of the new, at the time, number six drive above, right?...
...some of the very first K-Drives (later named number six drives) installed on Tom Gentry's Scarab...https://www.offshoreonly.com/wp-cont...Kiekhaefer.jpg
I remember being on a poker run with Fred when he was running his 41 Apache. He had the newly released #6 drives and painted them yellow-he said "If they were lemons there is no way I would have painted them yellow".Quote:
Originally Posted by FUJIMO
Joe
...originally commissioned to build in 1993 this is a photo of fred's 42 comanche transom...with its original rigging & exhaust/muffler system he designed...https://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/...w-platform.jpg
..."you have to be confident in your equipment if your going to paint them the color of lemons"...fred kiekhaefer...
..."just over the line"...fred kiekhaefer...