Rebuilt VS New Bravo III

MarkB

Oh yes. There's a huge likelyhood that at least one older boat in every marina is pumping out stray currents. 

You just don't know which one unless people inspect their anodes regularly and see high consumption.

Handymans342

They do make a meter for this

rasbury

wow- with all the things that go wrong with these boats, now I have to worry when I plug in? Any way to know in advance if I am plugging into a problem?

frenchship

Yes there is a special meter to find out any potential leak , but I don't remember the name of it, but I will find out.

06Rinker270

Handymans342 said:

They do make a meter for this

Dont mean to hijack this thread but after reading the article that, I believe it was, LaRea posted I am considering adding a second Mercathode Controller unit.  It says having the water in your slip checked by a mechanic but sounds like you can do it yourself with a meter.  @Handymans342 where can we get his meter?  This is the link that I learned a lot from.

http://www.sterndrives.com/galvanic_corrosion.html

Handymans342

Some Marinas have the meter. Frenchship will find out and hopefully post a picture

Cableguy Greg

If you have a digital Multi Meter, boatzincs dot com sells the probe that you plug into the multimeter. I have one and I am planning on using it next week. It is a corrosion reference electrode.

http://www.boatzincs.com/corrosion-reference-electrode.html

frenchship

Here is some good article on the subject and picture.
http://www.tri-statemarine.com/uncategorized/electric-shock-drowning/

ruwallydog

I probably will get the meter as well so at least I know what I am up against. It would be great to have Al do the work on my boat if he's up for it, but I am still a fair distance away from him. I am going to sand down my drives and repaint....do what I can. Just really ticked about the whole thing...blame myself.

MarkB

OK don't want to rain on anyone's parade but what does it matter if you can measure stray currents. A situation can change in 1 day with a new boat moving in or a ground cable breaking loose on a boat. I wouldn't want to have to walk around my marina with a probe all the time. It would be an interesting experiment for the kids, but nothing more than that. I would rather just asume there is stray currents around and protect against it.

raybo3

If you find stray current then you can try to correct the problem. Stray current can kill people swimming in the water. Also if its high you may need to add more zinc's or correct a problem with your boat. Either way its beneficial to know whats going on.  

frenchship

But never swim in a marina no matter what.

raybo3

A lot of people do........ Its dangerous.....

craigswardmtb

The old salt that use to be across from my slip would always shed down to his speedo and jump right in to clean his props and do whatever else he was doing.  It always made me nervous as plenty of people on my dock are inconsiderate with power cables often hanging in the water. 

raybo3

My marina is also a beach and lots of people clean their props and bottoms.

rasbury

just don't try to probe your bottoms!

raybo3

Why not??? The probe that checks electrolysis shows how to do the bottom also.. 

JC290

Ras is talking about an alien probe 

rasbury

lol....

rmrstlmo

Had to dig up this post to tell my story now that I have the final word from the insurance company.....

In late April I picked up some fishing line when the water was low.  It wrapped around the prop shaft and cut the seal.  I was leaking gear lube but was able to keep enough in the reservoir that no damage was done to the gears.  In early May my mechanic pulled the boat and the drive was so corroded from electrolysis that it wouldn’t seal up with new seal kit.  He had a used lower portion of another drive so he installed that. 

 

After going back in the water the I was still losing gear lube.  It wasn’t unusual for a reinstalled drive to use a little at the beginning so I wasn’t initially concerned.  However, it continued to use oil.  The boat was pulled again and he determined the entire drive needed be replaced because of the electrolysis corrosion issue.  The marina where the previous owner kept evidently had some kind of dock issue. 

 

I thought I’d give the insurance claim route a try since the fishing line was the original cause and now I was looking at a sizeable repair.  I was notified last Friday that the insurance would cover it because the fishing line was the original cause.  In their determination the drive condition wasn’t an issue.

 

I’m telling my story for a couple of reasons:  One, this forum is great, after reading some of the postings in this topic it made me think about the insurance route.   After further poking around on the internet I thought I had a case.  Two, this might help someone else some day in a similar situation.

Dream_Inn

Ray, thanks for the update!  It is good to hear you will finally get the issue resolved and now covered by insurance.  I'm sure your posting will help others out in the future.  I too had an outdrive replaced last spring by insurance.  Not exactly sure of the cause (may have hit something, but no real sign of it), but I was able to show the fluids were good and enough of it and it looked as though a gear tooth just gave loose.