Just wonder if corrosion on the lower unit is a sign of something bigger. It appears to be superficial, the broker said "this is due to the steering linkages that are on the drives themselves and is common on bravo 1's". The boat has external steering and tie bar. It is on both lowers, I'm showing you the worst one. Pics in post 2.

I have not seen the boat (only photos) and suspect it just needs a good clean up repaint and more care when detailing in the future. Any reason to believe the corrosion may also be internal?

The boat has been sitting for a while and to those who hate salt water, this is a FRESH WATER ONLY boat

Cheers,
RR

[ATTACH=CONFIG]565505[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]565506[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]565507[/ATTACH]

Just to add, there are no other obvious signs of corrosion, it appears to be fairly isolated.
Thank-you.

Fresh water boats will get corrosion on the drives if the metal gets exposed to electrical current in the water. The current can be from the boat itself if it's system is not properly grounded or if it's mercathode system is not working properly. The current could also come from other boats or any electical systems at a marina where the excess current goes into the water. If the boat is kept down stream of an electrical source the corrosion would be worse than if it was upstream as the water current will actually carry the electrical current with it. Basically, any drive that has the outer layer of protective paint damaged to the point the underlying metal is exposed, can and probably will show some signs of corrosion. The corrosion is the metal composition chemically changing due to the contact with the electrical current.

If it is not bad, you can sand it down and prime it prior to doing a repaint. Powder coating is also an option after the corrosion is cleaned up. This does not guarantee the corrosion will not come back, but it will definitely slow the process.

Those pics look typical of most outdrives I see around here, fresh water. Any added stainless steel parts like tie bars, drive showers and props will also attract more current to that area. It is really important to have the proper anodes on the drives along with the mercathode system working properly. But, the boat docked next slip over can still be dumping current into the water...

Thanks, makes good sense. The broker said it will need anodes so maybe she's been left in a pen a few days at a time between rack storage and little by little, the electrolysis has spread.

It might just needs some love......

RR

Would the use of Magnesium anodes be of any help.

I know that I exchanged my Zinc for Magnesium last year based on reading- Ours is 10000% fresh water and it's on a lift.

just a thought


3pointstar

One is better for fresh water and the other is for salt. I can not remember which is which right now. It will say on the package. lol If cleaned up and repainted, you can get plenty of years of use out of those drives. I have seen much worse here. Sometimes you simply have to re sand with a fine sand paper, then respray each season. Unless the boat sits on the trailer 100 percent of the time when not in the water being used, this will happen over time.

i would want to see the retaining nut, the threads and bearing carrier (take props off and have a good look-see)

i bought a pair of used transom assy's a few years ago, the swivel pin that goes up thru the gimbal ring and into the transom shield, the steering lever bolts onto it.
the swivel pin seal leaked, (inside the boat) water sat on top right under the steering lever and corroded away the transom shield enough it wouldn't hold a new seal, everything went into the trash except the gimbal rings which look almost new.

IF it becomes my boat, drives will be cleaned, sanded, primed, and painted back to perfect and will never be left in the water overnight.

RR


Edit, good suggestion above, internal corrosion was one of my concerns. I will investigate further.
Thank you.

The zincs on the trim cylinders look in awfully good shape for the condition of drives.

I think the boat has some stray current problems and no ground cables attached on the drives.

That isn't some lite corrosion from what I can see from the poor pics .

Something serious to look into I think.