berns29scarab

my father has on 01 Searay 260 Sundancer with a 454 mag mpi and a bravo 3. This thing goes through zincs like crazy !! Over heard someone saying something bout a recall due to contaminated metals used when lowers were built. Anyone know anything about this ? The lower skeg and carrier bearing housing are looking corroded and have never seen this b4

Knot 4 Me

Bravo III are notorious for dissolving like Alka-Seltzer. That is why the newer ones (2004 up?) have an additional zinc under the cavitation plate above the outer prop and a bullet zinc at the end of the prop shaft. Haven't heard of a recall, but there could have been one. Regardless, I've not seen any Bravo III that is left in the water hold up well. I would have the Mercathode checked out to ensure it is functioning properly and also make sure you using the correct zincs for the type of water the boat sits in. There is just a lot of dissimilar metal with a Bravo III drive and its twin stainless props so they are more prone to electrolysis.

TexomaPowerboater

Well that explains a lot. Folks 2004 Sea Ray 24 Sundeck has the bravo 3. We bumped the skeg on a rock a idle speed - no problem just a little nick. After about 2 years pass I go to put it up and there is a chunck about the size of a 4 inch square tile completely gone from the skeg. We drove it for the rest of the summer and just had them place a stainless steel skeg cover over it. I figured my dad just hit something and didn't tell me about it, but not now.....

berns29scarab

i added the bullet zinc to theres and have had to replace it like every 8 weeks !!

CigDaze

Yep, well known problem with BIII's. They're notorious for getting eaten up.

http://my.boatus.com/consumer/CorrosionBurns.asp
http://my.boatus.com/consumer/OwnersPatience.asp

rainmn

A guy I used to work with had a Sundancer with twin B3's, and did get them replaced under warranty because of corrosion problems.
I don't know the whole story, but I do remember that it was a big fight for him, and he lost a whole boating season over it.

Maybe one of these hanging grouper zincs might help?

http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs...allpartial/0/0

Chris288

I had my B1 X, transom assembly and gimble replaced under warranty also. After two short seasons it was in really bad shape. There are two different mercathode controlers used. the blue standard one is for low current areas, the red for rivers and high current areas. The red puts out more current. I also had to upgrade my batteries, Merc. says in order to work correctly, a minimum of 800 marine CCA needs to be maintained,,, Sunsation installed 6 something cca from the factory. In the end it was well over 11K in repairs, Merc. was awesome, the dealer doing the work on the other hand wasn't. Anway, Merc. also installed a zinc button kit, hooks to the mercathode and installs one on each side of the drive in the transom, wasn't thrilled about having two holes drilled in the boat but it needed to be done to boost the milliamps circulating through the mercathode, I also instlled the prop-nut zinc kit. After all was said and done, we trailer the boat now, no more slip, in the end I measured the current from the ground of the shore power on the dock to my drive and was getting over 6 volts, Merc. says anything over .5 volts is going to corrode your drive.. So simple test is to take a multimeter and measure the stray current, there could be bad wiring at the dock.

hunster

One season had an old busted wood boat behind me and I'm sure he was the cause of my anodes going so fast. Next year he's gone and my anodes lasted all season! It's not always your boat that has a problem. Make sure you use the merc anodes on the b3 , it will help in your cause with the merc rep. They are very strict with that being a cause of problems.

Panther

I agree..... most electrical work at marina's, unless it's a new dock...aren't inspected..... EVER......