Grady Drive zinc ?

[Tyoung13]

Hi, I’m new here. Not only to this forum, but to boating in general. Just bought a ‘91 Seafarer 228 with the Yamaha 200 2-stroke hanging off a Grady Drive. Boat runs great and is in exceptionally good shape.

But here’s my question: in addition to the zincs on the motor, I see one bolted onto the Drive immediately below the handlebar zinc. When I attempted to remove the one on the Drive today, I got some water coming out of the screw hole, so obviously the Drive has some water accumulation. I’ll read the forums to figure out how that water is getting in there, but where would I look in order to replace the zinc on the Drive?

 

[Punch53]

That zinc is from a Volvo Penta outdrive and should be easy to find. They were installed with self-tapping screws which isn't the most secure. Anyway, most of the time the water you find in the Grady bracket is sweet water that comes in from the inspection plate on the top. When you install the new zinc put a little boat-life around the screws because they can be a source of the water. There is an aluminum plug on the bottom of the drive but they don't come out too easily. I installed a Beckson plate in place of the factory plate on top of the drive so it takes two seconds to inspect for water and pump it out if there is any. The bracket is pretty much filled with styrofoam so even if you have a leak into the bracket it wouldn't hold more than a few gallons. They rarely leak from the transom joint.
BTW, don't ever paint the bracket with copper based anti-fouling paint.