Excalibur lower shaft stuck to Anderson carbon fiber long shaft

[Fitzwilk]

While on a beach hunt this morning I noticed the arm cuff on my Anderson carbon fiber (over-under) straight shaft had cracked. Good timing I guess because my new balanced straight rod from Rods-by-Plugger arrived by Fedex this evening. The problem I have is the Excaliber fiberglass coil rod is stuck to the Anderson carbon fiber long shaft. The plastic cam lock is froze solid. I tried loosening the cam lock with WD-40. No dice. Vice grips didn't work either. Guess I should have taken it apart and cleaned it occasionally. That cam lock has had 16 months to fuze to the shaft. I'm considering cutting the cam lock off the shaft at this point. Anyone have a less drastic idea?

Here is a photo of the old Anderson arm cuff.

 

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[bigscoop]

The arm cuff on my Excal broke exactly the same way today. Luckily I had an older pair of SS crutches that I had been saving for just this occasion, found them at a thrift store for $10. Arm cuffs on these things are also padded stainless and one of them bolted right onto my Excal SS shaft. Good as gold now.

As for the frozen shaft/lock....good luck. My advise, just keep soaking it until it starts to loosen up. The last time I had one froze it took about three days of constant soaking.

 

[Fitzwilk]

Aaargh. Three days of soaking? I won't last that long. I'm jonesin' to swing the new shaft already.

Thanks Bigscoop....

 

[goldnugget]

My Excalibur Shaft froze up also. I was able to push the Spring Pin in. It took me 3 Days about 6-7 hours to free up the 2 Shaft's. Keep putting water in the lower shaft and the turn it up side down and you will be amazed how much sand the 2 shafts hold. I finally took and placed 3 Dimes in my top shaft and let it slide all the way to the bottom of the lower shaft ( where it hit the Spring Clip and then took a 1'4 steel rod and beat on it. ( I don't recommend this ) It finally separated when all the sand was removes from both of the shafts-Joy Detergent-WD 40 , etc.

 

[shawninNY]

Prepare to buy a new lower! If you can get it to wiggle with a vice grip you may be able to get it out , the prob is you might crush the lower rod trying to get a good bite on it! The best penetrating product I've ever used is called kroil!

 

[lost items recovery]

PB Blaster is a really good penetrating oil also. It's way better than WD40.
I'd send some hot water down the shaft with controls off of course. I usually drill a hole about a 1/4" above where the two lowest parts of the coil shaft. This keeps the sand that gets in the shaft flowing out every time I'm in the water or when rinsing. That sand build up gets pretty heavy in your shaft and you wouldn't notice how much lighter it should be until it's out. It will really help to clean out your shaft while trying to gently wiggle the cam lock and lower shaft while blasting water from a garden hose. A funnel can help drive the water down the tube. I strongly recommend removing your coil first to avoid breaking the mount. 1/4" hole and hose works great. Hope this helps!
Good luck!

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[OBN]

Cut that baby off...Your a Pirate not a mechanic.........

 

[lost items recovery]

Cut that baby off...Your a Pirate not a mechanic.........

Lol!

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[Fletch88]

I'm a mechanic and pirate! Go get some Kroil oil and it will do the trick! It will work wonders over WD-40

 

[shawninNY]

Normally I would think there couldn't be much of a difference between penetrating oil products , but having seen a dropped in the mud and left for 2 Years snap on ratchet be freed up and work like new , I say Kroil ! Although I like the hot water suggestion too!

 

[NeilinFR]

Cut it like OBN said.

I don't even use camlocks anymore, rod to rod is tight enough for me, a little play is ok, and it all rinses out cleanly.
drilled a hole or two in each minelab lower rod also, near the bottom, to flush that out as well.

 

[bigscoop]

I don't know, now I'm thinking "trophy equipment" display. A nice looking plaque, some fashionable hangers, I can see the thing hanging on a wall as if to say, "A true treasure hunter's wall hanger." Could even double as an emergency crutch if you ever broke a leg.

 

[rc2125]

Ditched the cam locks on my excal setups, even ditched the newer plugger ones, just run without now, works fine, a few wraps of black tape instead (or not). Have free'd up several stuck lowers, using a long screwdriver through the coil adapter hole, a little twisting (not much) and some careful tapping on the screwdriver to move it out of the main shaft, tapping the screwdriver as close to the coil adapter as possible, has worked every time.