Melchior

Those are the correct contact plates. Make sure you got the top and bottom of them.

theiceman

chuck it in a container of vinegar for a few hours then rinse it.

Friendan

Seems like your dog in the background is just as concerned as you are!

The_Phantom

That's a good thought, but since it was working intermittently, it seems like it must just have needed to be cleaned.

lol, yeah, he's a naturally curious Redbone Coonhound and gets involved in everything.

That sounds like it might work. I'll try that tonight and let you guys know what happens.

The_Phantom

I hate to say it but I soaked it in vinegar for three hours, and cleaned the vinegar off with electronics cleaner but it didn't help. I removed the rubber gasket so the vinegar wouldn't start to dissolve it and put toothpicks in the part to hold the contacts open to make sure the vinegar was able to get into the gap. I probably shouldn't have used a plastic bowl because the vinegar started to melt the plastic. Check out the pics below. What should I try next? An oxidation remover like CLR? Or would that be too strong?

Jfrahm

yes like I said I used battery acid, and opened the contacts to get the acid in between them. I used a toothpick or three and a few drops of acid from the battery. Easy.

-Joel.

Racer46

Are those the after pictures? When I put mine in a Simple Green & distilled white vinegar solution all the copper parts came out very shiny.

The_Phantom

Those are actually the before pictures but it didn't change much after being in the vinegar. I'll try the Simple Green with vinegar tonight or tomorrow, I guess.

Racer46

The Simple Green works as a de-greaser, the vinegar is a mild acid. The vinegar should have turned the parts sniny. The only reason I used that solution is that I use it in my business to de-grease and de-scale (hard water scale) parts.

Jfrahm

Maybe the vinegar was too busy melting the plastic to deal with the contacts.

The_Phantom

I looked around my house to see what other cleaners I had and the only thing that looked like it would work was silver polish. So I soaked it in silver polish overnight since the metal appeared to be oxidized like silverware. The metal is noticeably less tarnished but it still doesn't work. Looks like I might have to break down and just buy the part...

The_Phantom

It turns out that one of the resistors on my part was open. Brian, Beab951, graciously offered to look at it for me and was able to fix it. He is a great member of this site and has my vote for Rennlister of the year. Here's a quote from his PM to me regarding how he fixed the part:


Thank you very much Brian!

Jfrahm

Lack of aggressive cleaning, I'd say. He just said a thermal protection contact was open, which is one of those little bimetal contact thingys you were trying to clean. Not a broken resistor lead or something like that.

I do not see the point of using simple green unless you want the part to look better, and I would not mix it with vinegar. The point is to clean up those contacts on the surface where they meet. Yours look really corroded in the pictures above. Battery acid worked great for me. Naval Jelly (phosphoric acid) would probably also do a fine job. Silver cleaner is probably too weak to do much. You are working with nasty corrosion and pitting, not a light patina of oxidation here.

Glad it's working, hopefully others will be able to follow this example.
-Joel.

dacula951

I cut very narrow strips of 600 grit sandpaper and used a very small screwdriver to gently open the contacts enough to insert a strip (I had the benefit of a microscope). Then I gently held the contacts closed to put extra pressure on the contacts while pulling out the sandpaper strip. I repeated this many times for each contact. I blew the contacts clean Wurth brake cleaner, then used a current adjustable power supply to verify that the contacts could carry a decent amout of current.

Bri Bro

You’re quite welcome Fishman.

It wasn't a lack of cleaning, the contact wasn't engaging correctly. I had to bend the arm slightly to make a good contact.

If you look at the picures, you will see it did need a good cleaning. I cleaned it with a mixture of equal amounts of saturated salt water and vinegar heated to around 150F. After about 5 minutes, I used a soft toothbrush to polish up the copper. Did this three time and the unit cleaned up nicely. I then polished the contacts with some 400 grit sandpaper and everthing worked!