I have a fair number of prewar and post war singles,one day I noticed tags on KB1 A,(3 examples) KB3 (1 example) 1941 Sea King single (2
examples) plus 3 legs Note 1940 motors had information stamped
into rope plate or in case of Sea King stamped into clamp bracket.
Post war KD3 (1 example) KD3S (4 examples) were checked.
The prewar (1941) all had ID tag on the port side of leg
while the postwar singles had the ID tag on starboard side.
For those not into nautical trivia.
RED LEFT PORT & GREEM RIGHT STARBOARD when facing forward.
GEAR SETS for the early K model Kiekhaefers is easy
SINGLE cylinder models have 12 tooth pinion on drive shaft and a 22 tooth gear on prop shaft.
TWIN cylinder models have a 14 tooth pinion on drive shaft and a 19 tooth gear on prop shaft. A bronze spacer and 3 steel shims are
also needed to obtain correct gear lash…critical items often left out.
GEAR SETS! 12/22 and 14/19 ONLY!
Same propeller was used on both singles and twins. The different
gear sets gave better match of power to propeller.
I have 3 or 4 14/19 gear sets that were badly chewed up because
the shims and spacer were left out and motor was run despite
the noise from gears self destructing.
Note: most of my accumulation were LOW price projects.
Some are 90% done and some are not as close to finish line.
I have a KB1 A steel tank awaiting delivery arrangements, I think it
could be subject of a photo series as I delve into it.
Louis
