Corrosion question about aluminum wheels

Skip

Registered User
"We use theory like a drunk uses a lamp post; more for support than illumination." Karl Strauch

Question:
Would it be possible to set up, on an aluminum wheel, spoke or disk, a... umm.... sacrificial corrosion system.. like unto the one used on boats that uses zincs to retard the decay on propellers?

(the question was nearly self-canceling for I reasoned that if it could be done, it would have already been done but I've found nothing published of it; hence the question)
 
Simple solution Skip - unlike the bottom of a boat your bike wheels can be easily cleaned, give them a wipe occassionally, works for me.
 
Thanks Rick. Wipes work wonders when well wetted with wax.
LOL! You know, I was wondering that since aluminum wheels were exposed to salty/corrosive enviroments very much like boats.....
I was thinking along the lines of stopping, or at least slowing down the corrosion that, for example, tries to spread under the chrome of a 20 year old FatBoy disk wheel.... that the chrome is going to flake off where it's spread is just the nature of the beastie. It's the unseen spread that annoys so much
It seems that, in order for the idea at the basis of my question to work, there might have to exist a similarly or comparativly equal value of electro-potential between whatever dissimular metal used in an aluminum alloy wheel as the boat's prop/zinc. ....... or like adhering a copper penny next to a car battery post......

I'm wondering if anyone has experience in slowing inter-granular corrosion in aluminum alloys using the cathode/anode route (there now! I managed to state it clearly that time).
 
No. For sacrificial anodes to work they need to submerged in an electrolyte like salt water. Air is a poor conductor so the process is not electrolytic, more oxydation.
 
The white worm that affects aluminium on your wheels, diamond cut car wheels and front fork sliders IMO is caused because the coating is trapping the moisture.

The wheels on my bike are uncoated alloy and they have no corrosion. I have removed the lacquer from front forks and polished out the brushed effect to a good level of shine, no more corrosion present.

If you removed the chrome you could also get a very good level of shine on your wheels as well.

Diamond cut wheels... well they should just not exist at all!
 
No. For sacrificial anodes to work they need to submerged in an electrolyte like salt water. Air is a poor conductor so the process is not electrolytic, more oxydation.
Bingo.
That's the line I was wondering about; was there enough incipient moisture, including trapped condensation, to support the process.
 
Anodes are normally connected at one end to the engine/gearbox and the other end to the prop/shaft/stern gland, the electrons flow and the zinc of the anode is the least noble and corrodes. Boats have an additional problem in that the air inside the hull is salt laden and the electrical system produces free electrons in the air.

Outboard motors however just have an anode bolted to the cavitation plate so there may be some mileage in your idea as any salty winter water would produce a weak electrolyte.
 
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