Adding Anodes to older Bravo trim rams

[mr300z87]

Hi all I am getting ready to put my boat in the water for a month long stay at my friends dock behind his house, in brick NJ (IE salt water). My boat has been trialer all it life has no bottom paint (I will proably pull her out after 2 weeks to clean the bottom and I plan to use her frequently), The bigger concern I have in protecting the EXPENSIVE to replace/repair Bravo drive and I will be adding an B1 Anode kit. The prop bearing carrier is already had an anode (not original drive) but the trim rams did not and have no screw holes for the anodes. Can I just carefully drill 2 hole in the ram cap and tap them to the required 10-32 threads? I am guessing that at some point the ram caps were drilled and tapped from the factory. The rams on my project Sea Ray had anodes so I can measure the depth and mark the drill. If this is not do able what are my other options. As always I appreciate any advice.

 

[achris]

According to my manuals and parts drawings, all Bravo drives had the caps drilled and tapped for anodes right from day one. Check the cap at mercruiserparts dot com, the part number is -806191T. And rather than a risky job of drilling and tapping the current caps in place, I'd just find a couple of second hand caps already tapped and fit those... Or at least remove the caps so you can do the job right... But as I said, if they aren't already tapped, they're the wrong caps anyway...

 

[MarkSee]

....what are my other options....

You're only talking about 1 month and I would not try and do any drilling myself.

What I will share is that during the pre-purchase inspection of my salt water slipped Sea Ray, we saw that the port trim ram was missing the anode and that another anode was worm clamped to the trim ram; there were some broken off bolts in the cap thus not allowing a new anode to be installed. The selling broker said that the diver that does in-the-water maintenance would have clamped on that temporary anode until a proper replacement of the cap could be done when the boat was hauled. So after I bought the boat one of the items I had my mechanic do was replace that cap and now the anode can be properly installed.

As Chris indicated maybe they are the wrong caps anyway and now might be the time to fix it right one and for all, but for the sake of 1 month in salt water, you might just consider a temporary solution like what was done on my Sea Ray.

Mark

 

[tpenfield]

I have drilled and tapped new holes in the trim ram caps, when the original holes gave it up to the salt Gods.

If you get squirted in the eye with oil while drilling, then you know you have gone too far. My recollection is that I drilled only about 1/8" deep then cut the threads.

 

[mr300z87]

Thanks all for the replies.

Chris all this info I found agrees with what you saying, however I know what I have. My Bravo setup is very early in Bravo production, originally a B2, I have no reason to believe that anything is not original to the boat. The original B2 upper doesn't have provisions for the remote drive oil bottle, it has a dip stick in the top!! but there was a bottle in the boat?? I have original purchasing documentation from oct 1988 with matching serial #s for the drive, transom assembly and engine.

I looked at photos of the caps and there seems to be plenty of material in that area. I might even take apart the bad ram from project Sea Ray to look before I drill. What is the worst that happens I spend the money buying the new caps recommended ^^^^^^ I think long term it would be nice be able to add these anodes to protect the drive. I see what the ravages salt water did to the B1 on project Sea Ray.

I will follow up on what I decide to do.