Ours is an even older Autohelm, though it's a 'through hull' unit, so the face of the transponder gets a liberal coating of antifouling each season....
And it doesn't seem to affect it's performance..... Maybe after 25 years a fault has occurred (water penetration?).....
If you can find what the specified resistance (ohms) should be, it might indicate that it's time is up.................Bill.