Common Excalibur Failures ... Sort of a Survey

[Charles in Va]

Yes,They did extend my warrenty.

 

[ridgerunnerII]

I have the blue Ex cal and the threaded end cap of the battery pod developed a crack across the connectors and down toward the pod. I sent a photo to Minelab and they sent a new black cap for me to replace with the cracked one. Not sure why it cracked, but got it replaced before there was any leakage.

 

[mesha]

Fatigue seems to be the biggest problem i found with my Excal II !!! not detector but the guy on the end sand scoop

 

[marbien]

Looks like minelab is not in my future, anyone know what there stock is trading at? With so many faults to this company I would not be surprised if the next thing you hear is someone else buying up this company.

 

[jkoaltrades]

so far, i've had had to replce the battery holder because it was cracked (old sword model with horseshoe coil and green headphones). i also replaced the factory shaft with a better shaft that distributes the weight better. i tried mounting the control housing and battery pod to a home-made chest mount, (i loved this mount) but i had to remount everything back on the shaft due to a short in the cable that goes from the coil to the control housing. the short seems centered about 14 inches fom the housing. it would short while swinging the shaft and cause me fits. this way it stays stable and is useable at least. i hope to repair it right in the future so i can re-use my chest mount. i rarely use the pin-point mode, but all my knobs are also really stiff. in fact i cringe every time i need to adjust them, i mainly only turn the threshold knob. i only hope nothing else messes up on this old used unit, but i'm starting to like it. i hear others talk about the diffrent tones they hear for different types of metals, but i guess i haven't used mine enough to be able to tell much difference, because almost all signals sound almost exactly the same, but i've been digging all signals anyway.
1st and foremost, this not meant to be a "Bash Minelab Excalibur Survey".

Some failures will be common to all detectors regardless of the manufacturer, such as coil failure due to improper cable restraint and fatigue of the wires with a resulting break. I have read that this one failure mode probably represents 60% or more of all malfunctions, regardless of make. It will be interesting to see if this is confirmed by this survey. As we know if you could change the coil on the stock Excalibur you could diagnose this failure yourself, or at least get down to the coil having a problem.

I am curious to know the most common causes of failures for the Excalibur. If you have had yours repaired or if you have repaired your own, what turned out to be the cause?

If you have had trouble please tell us and maybe we can get this all in one place and perhaps learn from it.

So I will start the list with the one I know of.

1.Threshold / On-Off control (switch / potentiometer) broken, will rotate 360 degrees, Threshold is high and cannot be lowered. It is either on or off, if on it is high. My assessment of the failure, mechanical stop in the switch is inadequate to prevent over travel, which results in failure, said another way the switch is too easy to break.

2. ?

 

[Tin Fin]

Only thing I have had go wrong was water in the AA battery pod, and that was my own fault I think. I have bought three Excal's, all used. Seems that some people have a predisposition to over-tightening the hex nuts that hold the battery pod cap on. The fault was mine in that I didn't realize that I had the AA pod on the rig and went diving with it. I failed to notice any moisture inside the pod. This resulted in the 9v connector corroding. I opened the pod, took out the batteries, wiped it dry, put silica gel packs in it, closed it up. Need to replace the 9v connector, and make sure I use that particular pod for wading only --- User Error, not ME (manufacturing error).

 

[firefour]

Used my Excal II about a total of 20 hrs when the volume in the headphones went very low. Machine was detecting but near the water it was hard to hear. Sent back to Minelabs repair in Illinois under warranty. They returned the unit in about 31/2 weeks. Headphones were defective and were replaced.

 

[tvr]

Battery pod, an old one, developed hair line cracks along the pod, mostly around the solid bottom away from the connector. During one hunt the hairline cracks became more than visual fractures and leaked enough to get to the batteries. There have been a couple of posts on ways people have sealed these leaks. One post I recall was with windshield crack repair kit. I've got new batteries installed but have only used this pod over wet sand since the leak and plug in a newer, modified, alkaline pod for wading and getting wet.
tvr

 

[birdman]

Head phones went out .I hot wired them to make one side work and used them for a month like that till I returned to the states.That keep hunting prime gold beaches till I flew home. Two hundred dollar repair.New phones ,decals ,knobs and a complete checkup with new seals. I also was sent a nice back pack .coffee cup and flash light.
Well worth the 200.00 to me for a referbish.

 

[ridgerunnerII]

I had the threaded end of the battery develop cracks. Minelab sent me a replacement part at no cost. Lloyd

 

[otlew]

Can you describe where the crack is. Is it in the threads or the body of the end cap, or the black pastice collar that screws on to the battery pod threads?

I had the threaded end of the battery develop cracks. Minelab sent me a replacement part at no cost. Lloyd

 

[Tin Fin]

It does seem that on some of the used battery pods I have, previous owners have "over tightened" or flat out stripped the threads on the pods that hold the pod caps. I haven't figured out a way to fix this yet. I should be able to use something as a filler, with a release agent on the Allen nut to make this better. On one pod, it never gets snug. It's not a problem to use a different pod for diving, but this one, I can only use in rainy weather, not in the water - yet.

 

[John(Tx)]

the headphones held water and slowly corroded the wiring inside the earcups. I cut out the wiring, resoldered some new wiring and fixed the problem. I have since replaced my headphones with some UW GG. HH

 

[otlew]

It does seem that on some of the used battery pods I have, previous owners have "over tightened" or flat out stripped the threads on the pods that hold the pod caps. I haven't figured out a way to fix this yet. I should be able to use something as a filler, with a release agent on the Allen nut to make this better. On one pod, it never gets snug. It's not a problem to use a different pod for diving, but this one, I can only use in rainy weather, not in the water - yet.

Tin Fin,

One solution is to use flowable silicone, insert the end cap, align the set screw holes and stop about a 1/32" (small gap) short of seating it against the tube, then apply a light amount of flowable silicone for 360 between the endcap flange and pod tube. Press the endcap home against the tube and wipe 360 with your finger to push it in and clean the excess off. If the O-ring is sealing good it will want to slowy creep back out because it is compressing air acting like a piston. So you may want to use a wide rubber band to hold it in place while installing the set screws.

Then fill the set screw hole about half way, using a toothpick to get it into the hole of the cap, then screw in the set screw. After the silicone has set you will have a silicone gasket between the end cap and the pod tube as well as in the set screw holes. Let the silicone set, takes a couple of hours minimum, 24 hrs is best.

Using the above sealing method, I did a test on my cast end caps in a paint pressure pot.

I used lead to weight the pod and it submerged it in 8" of water. I then applied 60 psi of air pressure (safe highest pressure for the paint pot) which took the assembly to a depth of 138.5 feet.

Results, no leakage in a 4 hour test.

Fresh water exerts 0.433 psi per vertical foot of height, therefore the calculations look like this 60 psi/0.433 = 138.586 feet

I am satisfied it can withstand wading depth without leakage

None of the above has any warranty, use this method at your own risk. Testing it in a 5 gallon bucket, then removing and checking for leaks in 2 hours followed by overnight testing would be prudent.

 

[Tin Fin]

otlew,

Thanks for that bit of information - I will be working on that in the next couple weeks and will let you know the results. I don't have a pressure pot, but that's ok. Excellent description!

 

[John(Tx)]

maybe I've been lucky. Only problem I've had was with the original headphones holding water and corroding the wiring which I replaced. Do you plan on making any ikelite female connectors where the coil and battery cable connect to unit? If so, I would be interested in that so maybe I can also use the 8" coil. thanks....John

 

[otlew]

Your are most welcome.

otlew,

Thanks for that bit of information - I will be working on that in the next couple weeks and will let you know the results. I don't have a pressure pot, but that's ok. Excellent description!