jeff1000man

I had 2 brand new gimbles put on my Sea Ray a little over a year ago. The paint has just disentigrated, and it is corroded into the gimble ring etc. Annodes are still in tact.

Could it be a paint problem from Merc?? Shouldn't these things be able to stay in the water all the time without this problem??

Ideas???

JTeam

Sounds like a grounding issue. You should have a little cable that goes from the gimbal ring to the housing if my memory serves me correctly. Maybe when the ring was replaced it wasn't reinstalled?

US1 Fountain

iTrader: (1)

Could be several things. Lack of bonding on the drive assembly, stray electricity in the water from your boat, neighbors boat, docks, or even bare wires hanging in your bilge if there is water in there.

Does the corrosion appear more around SS components, gearlube fill/vent plugs, prop hubs or SS studs?

glassdave

iTrader: (1)

+1 a lot of people overlook all the little things in the Mercathode system that are required to make it work. All those connections and ground straps are pretty important and easily overlooked, without them the anodes cant do their sacrificial job.

jeff1000man

Guys that put these things in checked yesterday and said that all of the straps are installed properly.

I am just gonna have to check myself and blast them down and put some kind of anti fouling paint on them.

Funny how the old ones didn't corrode, and none of the other boats at the marina have this problem either??????????????

joew.

Sounds like there is one common element........You!

jeff1000man

You know what's funny is that I havn't turned a wrench on that boat, so it couldn't be me.......

RunninHotRacing163.1

LMAO

US1 Fountain

iTrader: (1)

Gotta use antifouling w/o copper, otherwise they will corrode while you watch. The reason you see a 1" unpainted strip around the transom assemblies, no aluminum contact with anti fouling paint. Interlux makes a paint just for outdrives in a spray can.
But not sure if antifouling paint is going to help with corrosion problems. There are 2 types of corrosion issues, dissimilar metals (alum, SS) and stray electricity.
Are your Mercathodes working.. fuses good? They should be wired directly to battery, or the non switching side of the battery switch so they can not be shut off. Same as bilge pumps.
Galv. isolator good?

JTeam

Anti-fouling paint is great for barnicles but won't do a thing for corrosion. The fact that your old rings didn't have a problem and that the anodes are not showing an issue still tells me you have a grounding problem. Get out an ohm meter and make sure you have continuity between the ring and other components of the drive. There are a dozen things that can cause corrosion problems, but yours seem to be isolated to the rings.