Confused!!! Need help/advice/opinion on what to do with Speedmaster II's!!!!!!!!
 

First off I will tell you what I have; 1985 Chris Craft Chris-Cat. The boat is powered by twin 502's and has Speedmaster II drives.

Here is my situation...
Somewhere along the way someone swapped the Starboard drive to a left hand rotating drive. So now my boat has 2 left hand rotating drives on it. Drives kind of crazy at speed!!!!

Now here are my options as I see them cheapest/least amount of work to the most expensive/most difficult:

Find a right hand drive and swap it and get a matching right hand prop to what I already have. That has proved almost impossible!

Swap to TRS's, going to need spacers to get the right x-deminsion!?!?!? Got a buddy who has a few sets of trs's that is willing to swap me

Extension/conversion boxes... Does anyone make these for what I have??????

Konrads... Not sure what that will do to my X or what they cost????

Or worst case scenario... Sell my current drives and go to a bravo style drive, sell the tranny's and speedmasters, redo the transom, motor height and everything else... I do know from research that I dont want to move the motors back because it has been known to cause some porposing issues and eratic driving conditions so I would have to run some kind of drive shaft!!!! (does anyone have info on this kind of swap??? I would love to do some more research)

I would really like to just swap the one drive for now so if anyone happens to have a right hand drive or knows where one is that would be great!!!!

But I would also like to here everyone's opinion as to what they think I should ultimatly do and why.... I really want to make sure that if I am going to spend the money it will bring added value to the boat as well!!!

Thanks :ernaehrung004:

find A right hand lower or drive for the 2's I have the tailstocks for the 2's if you need them. Try Mel riggs in wisc.

That would be my first choice!!! Do you have mel's phone number???

I think i have a in good condition #2 RH for ya .
Complette drive .

Riggs Marine in Eldorado,Wisc. 920-872-2728

How much shipped to 67211, business address is that matters, oh and is it a 6" shaft? and what ratio?
Thanks,
Orlando

Tough call on the SSM II's. They're getting very scarce and expensive and they're somewhat fragile. At the same time, a conversion to III's or something like the Konrad is going to be expensive. Most likely you'd never get the $$ back. But if you love the boat and plan to keep it, you really should consider a permanent fix. You can be sure that parts for the II's aren't going to become any more plentiful or any less expensive- maybe now's the time to bite the bullet, instead of getting deeper into a drive that will break again.

So what would be a good permanent fix??? Bravo xr's I here are good.... With a bravo set up I would have to ditch my tranny's, correct??? Thats cool with me (less weight) but then I would have to run some sort of drive shaft i am guessing...
For now my plans are to keep the motors n/a and run them up to some where around 600 hp.

Keep in mind that I am trying to do this as cheaply as possible, so most likely some sort of used set up would be great!

Yes, balance is definitely a consideration. I'm not a huge Bravo fan but with your existing power, they could work quite nicely for you. If you plan on moving upward, I'd look elsewhere. A set of Merc SSM IIIa's would be nice but you're back to a discontinued drive. Much better near-term parts availability though. Depending on your X dimension, the Konrad might be a consideration. The gimbal is identical but the Konrad is slightly shorter than the TRS. The SSM II was a bit longer than the TRS so you might have a problem using the existing cutout. Konrad makes essentially a set-back version with an integral extension box. That could possibly offset the x-dimension issue. If you want to explore the Konrad, PM BIGGUS here on the board- he's a rep.

A konrad install would be the Best option. But thay are not cheap. XR's will hold up to 600HP well and cost much less than the Konrads. By selling the II's and trannies, that would offset the expense quite a bit. Now if you are happy with the reliability of the II's, find a RH drive and call it a day. It will certainly cost a great deal less, especially after you sell the LH drive and prop.



Darrell.