3-1 Simrad/Lowrance Transducer bracket screws badly corroding? Thought stainless?

Pleinmont

Pleinmont

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Cleaning the waterline the other day I scrubbed the weed off my transom mount transducer and was surprised to find one of the 6x bracket screws just snapped off under my finger nail.
Annoyingly it left half in the mounting but I managed to unscrew another one whole as it was also loose. This is what remains after 6-8months in the water.

I presume there is crevice corrosion or electrolysis but how to protect a transducer mounting that has no connection to the boat's anode system?
The rest of my running gear is ok and the stainless transducer bracket is also ok. I've put a couple zip ties around the transducer so it doesn't disappear at speed even if more screws fail before I can replace.

Seems to be just the screws that are taking a battering which is weird. Will try to replace the ones I can get out whole with new ss machine screws and see if the new ones die as quickly.

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Pleinmont said:
Cleaning the waterline the other day I scrubbed the weed off my transom mount transducer and was surprised to find one of the 6x bracket screws just snapped off under my finger nail.
Annoyingly it left half in the mounting but I managed to unscrew another one whole as it was also loose. This is what remains after 6-8months in the water.

I presume there is crevice corrosion or electrolysis but how to protect a transducer mounting that has no connection to the boat's anode system?
The rest of my running gear is ok and the stainless transducer bracket is also ok. I've put a couple zip ties around the transducer so it doesn't disappear at speed even if more screws fail before I can replace.

Seems to be just the screws that are taking a battering which is weird. Will try to replace the ones I can get out whole with new ss machine screws and see if the new ones die as quickly.

View attachment 119138

View attachment 119140
Click to expand...
Same thing exactly happened to my Simrad transducer after one year. The screws rotted away leaving the transducer hanging by its cable. The screws had also destroyed most of their threaded inserts into the transducer body. Greenham Regis, who supplied and fitted the unit were not the slightest bit interested. In the end, I araldited the thing back on the bracket myself.
 
andrewbarker said:
Same thing exactly happened to my Simrad transducer after one year. The screws rotted away leaving the transducer hanging by its cable. The screws had also destroyed most of their threaded inserts into the transducer body. Greenham Regis, who supplied and fitted the unit were not the slightest bit interested. In the end, I araldited the thing back on the bracket myself.
Click to expand...

Ah interesting.
I hoped it might not just be me :) I'd contacted Simrad customer support but they never replied.
It's really irritating but that's a good idea about epoxying the bracket and the transducer together permanently. Just wish I'd known they were temporary screws when I fitted it!

Be interesting to see if my replacement M4 SS screws from the chandlery last longer.

Thanks
 
I think they are brass inserts from memory, pretty sure it was a darker metal.

edit
not brass, just found a pic online, the inserts are probably stainless of sorts too.
Will see what state they are in on mine when i try and thread in a new M4 screw. Hopefully the inserts are ok.

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Thanks, definitely going to just glue it when I get a chance.

I mentioned it on the Simrad Facebook page and it appears there's loads of people who have had the same problem.
Most permanently glue them or one guy just regularly changes his fixings :)
Pretty poor design considering it is meant to sit in seawater!
 
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