Under the correct circumstances just about anything can be plated, copper on plastic is a good example in the correct "bath" as the Old Man used to put it.. Voltage is not as big a deal as the current flow, if nothing jumps at you Farley with a straight up ohmmeter, do you have access to a megger? This one may be a PIA and the current flow may be low enough that you will not see it with a regular meter.. Where there any breaks in the paint before the touch up? Unless there is some oddball reaction with the paint and there should not be, the timing of the touch up may be a red herring..
Quote from: "dburr"Under the correct circumstances just about anything can be plated, copper on plastic is a good example in the correct "bath" as the Old Man used to put it.. Voltage is not as big a deal as the current flow, if nothing jumps at you Farley with a straight up ohmmeter, do you have access to a megger? This one may be a PIA and the current flow may be low enough that you will not see it with a regular meter.. Where there any breaks in the paint before the touch up? Unless there is some oddball reaction with the paint and there should not be, the timing of the touch up may be a red herring..While you chase the electrical gremlin Fitz, let's look a little closer at Dave's post.Fishing in the usual spots correct? Everything about the same.....Could the "bath" have been different? Something in the water that day that is not usually there? Metal in solution (iron) in runoff that just happened to be in your area? Doesn't really account for the pitting on the shaft which would appear to be the metal that made it to the outboard. If the paint is the culprit (only thing that appears to have been changed) maybe it was compounded in its interaction with the shaft because of the water that day.Just thoughts.
Fitz, Motorguide's paint has an insulating ingredient in it. More of a coating as opposed to paint. When you lightly sanded and repainted, you opened (shorted) a path thru the water, esp saltwater. This, along with using the starting battery as a T/M battery (a BIG no-no), basically gave you a direct short to ground, ie battery-t/m-saltwater-gearcase-start battery=you are lucky you weren't in the water 10 hrs or you would probably be replacing the gearcase also. If you just isolate your t/m batteries from the rest of the boat, you should be good to go. Capt Bob was right with his post from MG owners manual.You can ask any of the warranty centers, for MG or MK, and they will tell you NOT to use starting battery for the TM. I've known the owners of Central FL TM for ever and that is one of their pet peeves when customers come in complaining about their TM's