I need Info on Excalibur Repair

[scorpio264]

I have been experiencing the dreaded Excalibur wiring issue. My detector falses constantly when the wire is able to move. I have tried to tape the wire up in a position that keeps it from acting up. That is not an ideal solution for me. I bought my Excalibur about 8 years ago. The problem started about 4 years ago. I just don't use it much any more. I have a trip planned to Maui for Christmas. I need it fixed by then. My questions are- Have they improved whatever components, or wire, that cause the problem? How much is the repair? Who would you use for the work? Any info appreciated.

 

[Andy Sabisch]

Since the unit is long out of warranty, you are stuck paying for the repair. With that said, I would call Minelab in Las Vegas and ask to talk to Bill in Service. Describe what you are experiencing and see what his thoughts are and being a loyal Minelab user, see what they can do in terms of holding the cost down on the repair.

If your detector has the original Sea Search coil (the one that looks like a horse shoe), you may find that the coil itself needs to be replaced since they are long, long, long obsolete and the coil may have a part in your stability problem.

Hope this helps - not sure if it was what you wanted to hear but you might get away for less than you are expecting

Andy

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Andy gives a good answer. And I would add this: If you are good with a soldering gun, you can isolate the affected part where the cable has frayed, cut out an inch or so of that area, re-solder all the colored wires back, black tape it up, and presto! Problem solved Of course you can't dive with it, but it'll be good enough for rain, or surf's edge type hunting (where only random spray of an occasional splash reaches that high). This is if it's a cable problem, and not the coil as Andy suggests is an alternative source of eratic noice.

The way to isolate the exact part where the fray is, is to hold on tightly (black tape it if need-be) then entire length, so that no movement at all is possible. Then wiggle/move small sections at a time. If the threshold maintains and doesn't chatter, then keep moving down the length. Eventually you'll find the one spot where movement causes the threshold chatter. Hopefully it's not right at the junction where it enters the coil, or the machine. Because if so, really hard to do a cut & solder there.

I used to use hipmounted Whites (which used to have wimpy thin chords). The constant wire movement d/t the hipmounting, left me having to do a cut/solder job almost every few months. I can't imagine how an un-moving chord (like if you used the Excal with a stationary rod, and not-hipmounted), would develope a fray in the line, but I guess anything's possible.

 

[scorpio264]

Thanks for the info. I do indeed have an erratic falsing from the cable. When the cable is secured to the shaft with black tape it goes away. The problem seems to migrate to a new portion of the cable after some hip mount use. I guess it will have to be sent in for a true repair. I do some surf and snorkel hunting with it. I would hate to have the water follow the wire into the housing from the repair. Any idea what a cable replacement would cost through Las Vegas?

 

[Harold in NC]

Like Tom Said, if you can narrow the spot down and what i would do is cut that whole spot out, like keep bending the wire till you get the spot and cut about one inch either way, then splice back the wires their should be 5 wires and they are all different colors, but before that i would go to home depot or lowes and buy what they call a butt splice kit, in the electrical dept, this is what it says on package, HSP-WP Butt splice kit 8-14 AWG STR they cost about 10.00 dollars you can buy one or two of them it's a heavy duty srinkwrap kit, then you get a heat gun and slide the shrinkwrap on the cable first mend the wire by soldering each one and wraping each one with electric tape then slide the shrinkwrap over your repair spot and put the heat gun to it and make sure you shrink it down far enough and it won't leak, i've done it before and it works like a charm. Harold in Fla.

 

[Andy Sabisch]

If it is the old Sea Search horse shoe coil, they will need to replace it and that will add to the cost of the repair.

You can also contact Gary Storm at Detector Pro as he is the one that designed them originally (he was the Minelab distributor at the time) and can also do repairs on them

www.detectorpro.com

Andy