Hey everyone, I've been lurking on this sight for a while but have never posted up before. I'm at my wits end with a boat I bought a few months ago and need some advice... so here's my question. I recently bought a 1994 Sylvan aluminum boat with a 115 horse merc on it. I'm having problems with electrolysis on the transom. The boat is used in both fresh and saltwater but so far I've only used it in salt. The old owner had problems too but never mentioned it to me (kinda suspicious I guess). I plugged the minor holes I had but now want to know how to stop it. The old owner painted the transom so I'm going to strip the paint down and use what I know is the correct paint. But if he had electrolysis before he painted it, it must be something else.
I've gone over the whole hull with a multimeter and see no discrepency in ohm readings anywhere on the hull or motor... all were .5 to .6 ohms. There is no trace amps running through the motor, hull, etc with or without the motor running. I have no voltage on the hull with the exception of the post for the trim/tilt motor has about a half volt difference from the hull all the time (even with the battery off). That may be a problem but I'm thinking it's not an electrical issue.
The hull is painted from the manufacturer but it has no zincs on it... the zincs on the motor are chewed up a bit but not too bad. I've talked to Sylvan/smokercraft and they say the zincs on the motor should be enough... but obviously they're not. I'm thinking that I need to put zincs (actually magnesiums from what I've been reading) on the hull to stop the problem.
So my question (finally) is, am I on the right track? Or can anybody lead me in a differenct (and better) direction?
