VP 120S Saildrive-Anode warning

[Cariadco]

Checked the Anode (one piece, with 2 attachment screws) last year, bit of scrubbing and it looked like new, also nice and solid, so no loose mounting screws. Great.
Last week, lifted the boat out and found the Anode loose and rattling around.
Started striping the Prop (2 Bladed Flexofold) but couldn't shift the hub from the shaft. It has seized onto the shaft.
Ended up cutting away the Anode to gain space at the front of the hub, and with Puller on the other end, I could hammer away
at the hub with a big punch, it started to move, a couple of mm's a time. Eventually got the bugger off.
Cause? Although the Anode's screws were still tight, the Screw holes in the anode had dissolved away, allowing the Anode to be completely loose.
I think this resulted in little, if any current being dissipated by the Anode as no electrical connection to the Leg, causing the Splined shaft
to bond with the Prop Hub's inner sleeve.
Lesson? Strip the bugger off, every year and check the state of the Anode securing Holes/Screws.
For a while, I thought I would be in the market for a new prop........!

 

[VicS]

I doubt if the seizure of the prop onto the shaft has anything to do with drive leg anode becoming loose. It is there to protect the sail drive leg.
Paint over and around the screws to limit the local corrosion of the anode.
When you refit the prop each year lightly grease the splines with some good waterproof grease.

 

[Neeves]

I'm not sure about 'lightly' greasing the splines, we 'copiously' grease ours with a waterproof grease for each spline. We have 3 bladed Volvo folding props and anything that keeps them safe and sound costs nothing compared to a new prop (and we have 2 of them).

We tend to take them off annually. My wife is a dab had at cleaning them, abrading them for the next year's AF and then coats them. She prefers to do this in the cockpit and who am I to argue. So I take them off, she applies masking tape to the hull, I do the AF (she does the props and caters for appetite) and then I reattach props (and anodes).

Works well for us

I attach the one piece anode, drive home the two little fixing bolts, secured with blue Loctite. We buy new tab washers for each service and I secure the double bolt arrangement for securing the prop - again using blue Loctite.

Whilst we might achieve 2 years with the AF, and then I get a year off, the AF on the props only last 12 months and the anodes can be anything from 12 months to 2 years.

Jonathan