Electrolysis

[EZGO]

My transom in the sunlight looks bronish orange and a red tint to it. Is it just stained or am I getting electrolysis. It only looks that way outside in the garage you cant see it, just looks like a plain aluminum transom. When it is outside the color sort of looks like a rotten orange peel. I googled it and a guy on the net somewhere came up with the orange peel look and described the look of my. There is no junk or puss comeing out of it I see.

[HURRICANEBOB]

My transom in the sunlight looks bronish orange and a red tint to it. Is it just stained or am I getting electrolysis. It only looks that way outside in the garage you cant see it, just looks like a plain aluminum transom. When it is outside the color sort of looks like a rotten orange peel. I googled it and a guy on the net somewhere came up with the orange peel look and described the look of my. There is no junk or puss comeing out of it I see.

I think the first thing I would do is to get some fine grit steel wool and clean it off, then see if it reaccumulates. In the meanwhile double check all battery connections and wires looking for any line that may be nicked and near metal near the transom. And you may want to run a continuity check between your negative battery post and the metal of the hull to see if there is a common ground somewhere. Electrolysis is often accompanied by the metal pitting.....are you seing that?

I get weird looking stuff on my pontoons on occassion. Sometimes is as you have described. I clean it off, and keep and eye on it and have never had a recurrence. Sometimes, not to minimize it, it might just be some really weird stuff in the water you were at last.

[EZGO]

I see white specks on the boat. The common ground your talking about, do i put the electrical tester on it and if so what goes to what like put red to neg on the battery and the black to the hull. I am not much for electrical testing or work. I called the dealer from which it came and they said sounds like a bad anode. Alot of the wires are buried and tied up to every thing its a pro team 185 tracker 2002. Thanks for the help

[HURRICANEBOB]

I see white specks on the boat. The common ground your talking about, do i put the electrical tester on it and if so what goes to what like put red to neg on the battery and the black to the hull. I am not much for electrical testing or work. I called the dealer from which it came and they said sounds like a bad anode. Alot of the wires are buried and tied up to every thing its a pro team 185 tracker 2002. Thanks for the help

Set an electrical tester to "continuity". Put one probe on the NEGATIVE pole of the battery, then go to the hull metal with the other. Red or black probe on either. You should get no reading, meaning there is no flow from the negative side of the battery to the hull. DO NOT GO FROM THE POSTIVE POLE OF THE BATTERY, DO NOT, SPARKS......

Could be the anode, it should be on the lower unit of the engine. This is a relatively cheap attempted fix. Maybe 2 anodes, the trim tab is an anode, and part of the way up the lower unit there may be a second retangular one that sits in a pocket. Might ask the dealer did he mean one of the 2 or both.

[EZGO]

They said there are two and I should try to replace them both, I started asking all this to them because my cranking battery died and I was going to buy another deka battery. I called deka for a dealer closer to home and was told that walmart, sears, autozone, napa batteries are made by them and I found one at Napa for 20 bucks cheaper as for the anodes I think they said the anodes were 16 bucks each thanks for the help.

[HURRICANEBOB]

They said there are two and I should try to replace them both, I started asking all this to them because my cranking battery died and I was going to buy another deka battery. I called deka for a dealer closer to home and was told that walmart, sears, autozone, napa batteries are made by them and I found one at Napa for 20 bucks cheaper as for the anodes I think they said the anodes were 16 bucks each thanks for the help.

No problem, glad to help, hope all works out okay. Electrical stuff can make your head hurt. Here's where I get my anodes from. Might save ya a buck or 2.

http://www.boatzincs.com/mercury-zinc.html