On Oct 11, 11:26 am, "Lew Hodgett" wrote:
Subject

Trying to be a ground current sleuth is difficult at best. I would not
waste my time, since it is only going to cost more money and may not
be successful.


Good lord.. It's easy. All you have to do is map the marina with a
good volt meter.

If you have a hot spot near you.. you know who's to blame. All you
need is a meter and a long piece of wire. Put one lead into the ground
terminal of the plug, and one in the water and read the meter. Set up
a grid pattern and map the voltage in the area...simple. And it's very
easy to find out who's causing problems.

If this sounds complicted print this post.... bring it to a marine
electriction ...and pay him a couple hundred bucks to do it for you,
he will enjoy a nice day on the docks.

I had a boat next to me once that had a DC short to ground and he had
no clue. I showed him on the meter the voltage next to his boat and
down the dock. We turned off his power and Wa-La the voltage
disappeared. Not only did he waste his zinc's and part of mine, he
sucked to many electrons from all his bronze hull fittings and and
shaft tube that they turned that brittle shade of pink. He had a short
where a screw holding down the stanchions pierced a wire, and a short
to his running lights wiring on the lifelines contected to the
stancions.

Joe





Good luck.

Lew

"Joe" wrote:

Good lord.. It's easy. All you have to do is map the marina with a
good volt meter.

Spoken by someone with the perspective of experience and prior
knowledge.

Different ball game.

May response was aimed more at "the unwashed masses"G.

Lew

On Thu, 11 Oct 2007 09:55:39 -0700, Joe
wrote:

he
sucked to many electrons from all his bronze hull fittings and and
shaft tube that they turned that brittle shade of pink.

That is sounds like the wholesale removing of the tin, zinc [in the
case of brass] or whatever leaving spongy pure copper. Brittle, that
wouldn't be, but it would be weakened.

Casady

On Oct 11, 3:48 pm, (Richard Casady)
wrote:
On Thu, 11 Oct 2007 09:55:39 -0700, Joe
wrote:

he
sucked to many electrons from all his bronze hull fittings and and
shaft tube that they turned that brittle shade of pink.

That is sounds like the wholesale removing of the tin, zinc [in the
case of brass] or whatever leaving spongy pure copper. Brittle, that
wouldn't be, but it would be weakened.

Casady

It looks like it transformed the bronze to a substance like cool lava
on a microscopic level, the bronze looses it shine and if you smack a
wheel that's pink.. it will find a fault and snap..the bronze is
indeed brittle almost chalkey . I'd have to look it up and see which
is more noble in a bronze mix to guess which electron's took a hike.

Electrolysis can do strange things. I've pulled 3" 25' SS shafts that
had what looked like big scoops of metal taken out..just like a red
hot ice cream scooper did it in butter..very clean, all purdy and
shiney.

I agree it's best to just isolate all wiring runs, use breakers,
fuses, and gauges to know whats going on.

Joe