No? Well, anyone who owned a Japanese motorcycle in the seventies is. So I am told, it used to eat engine/transmission casings unless you religiously kept them clean.
So, I shouldn't have been suprised when I removed the transmission casing shields from my Honda F400 rotovator this afternoon to replace the axle water/oil seals, to find that the seal housings looked like this:




I've fitted the new seals:




I am now hoping that, because the axle does not rotate at high speed and there is no internal pressure in the casing, the new seals will stay ion place and hold in the oil.
Otherwise it's going to be serious thinky time about either getting a used trans casing (kinda difficult as these machines are getting very scarce) or getting another machine. Wish me luck!

Galvanic corrosion is a topic that comes up about once a month on my forum (honestly i kid you not) however i wouldnt be surprised to hear many have not!

I guess if it came to it you could have some weld built up on the casing.

Very temping to suggest painting it, but if done wrong it could be worse than without.


Daniel

hi i have seen seals held in that sort of thing by building up with belzona or one the newer epoxy or two pack metals and if in desperation i know a bloke who built up the surrounding area with bodyfiller
you might be surprised at what you can get away with
cheers les g

And I've just picked up the wheels for it

With the seals in place, I'd chemical metal the gaps etc. Surprisingly hardy stuff. Just treat it like the casing's made of priceless crystal...

It's at a stage where you may as well give it a go.. if it starts leaking etc. then you can just replace it and be no worse off.

Go to a marine supplier and get a anode..it wont reverse the damage...but will stop it in its tracks

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Originally posted by PSpirine
With the seals in place, I'd chemical metal the gaps etc. Surprisingly hardy stuff. Just treat it like the casing's made of priceless crystal...

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Originally posted by Thinking about it
And I've just picked up the wheels for it

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Originally posted by Browser

So, I shouldn't have been suprised when I removed the transmission casing shields from my Honda F400 rotovator this afternoon to replace the axle water/oil seals, to find that the seal housings looked like this:

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Ahhh galvanic corrosion. US landrover owners know all about that.... That is where the ally body disolves at the mounting holes to the chassis. Also know as Mix Metal Corrosion....

Real Pain in the Ass

In the late 1960s and early 1970s we used to get simca 1100 coming in at less than 2 years old with the side/flasher lamps not working -- a quick glance would show the lamp housings completely dissolved nothing left ---- they were made from Zamac the Zinc-Aluminium alloy that Dinky cars were made from it didn't take too well to being exposed to road salt.

It amazes me that the french and italian car industries survived they made cars from such such s**t .

This is a problem on Lotus Elises too, particularly where owners have replaced the stock mild steel bolts with stainless steel ones near aluminium things.

The further away the two metals are from each other in the galvanic series table the faster the reaction is in the presence of an electolyte (like salty water). Stainless steel is much further away from Aluminium in the series than mild steel which creates a problem that wasn't really there before.

Lotus specify the use of Duralac jointing compound when interfacing dissimilar metals together. You can get it at:

http://www.seamarknunn.com/acatalog/info_PBDL-1115.html

or more cheaply:

http://www.lasaero.com/site/products/article?id=P002OHHP1