I have read some posts that detail the cleaning of up to 900 electric component points. I can't argue with regular or yearly maintenance on the exposed conectors such as the starter posts and such, but The ones on the inside like the battery and the individual fuse connectors, not so much. I understand that vibration and corrosion are a problem however and that there are some very good products to greatly reduce or eliminate any corrosion without any notable increase in resistance, and since I'm such a lazzy Pig I would like to reduce the amount of regular maintenance as much as possible. SO! My question is does anyone know of a good brand of lubricant possibly a ESTER based grease? I understand this particular kind of grease is Highly ressistant to corrosion while virtualy undetectable resistance increase. What say you?

 

For contact cleaning, people say that "Deoxit" (availabel at Radio Shack) is the Schnizlle! Then a good electrical grease is a good idea to use. But the bulk of the issue with cars as old as ours are the ground points and corosion on the various connectors/wires in the engine bay. Many also seem to have issues with the fuse panel in the pass footwell, too. Unfortunately, there is no "easy" way to fix it. SharkSkin took the preventive route and cleaned everything up. Me, I take the lazy way and do corrective restoration as needed. Although I did notice the main harness is fraying a bit at the main connector in the engine bay, and I may fix this before it gets worse or starts causing issues.

 

You can use Stabilant, which actually enhances the contacts -- instead of a virtually undetectable resistance increase, there is a significant resistance decrease. There is more info here. Google around, you can get the Stabilant for much less than I initially paid. Over time I have applied this stuff to most of the contacts in the fuse panel, pod, and elsewhere and my car is pretty much gremlin-free at this point.

 

Generally think of this as 2 things, cleaning to improve electrical contact and preventing any future contact degradation.

You may need to do both of these or just preservation of the good connections you already have

In cases where there is significant degradation mechanical cleaning is almost certainly required, further chemical cleaning is also desireable and may be enough alone if you are just in for preventative work. Once you are clean AND reassembled - products that create a barrier to further oxidation/corrosion are desireable. these are availabe in grease, liquid and spray formulatons - these are no solution to poor contacts though - only a means to keep good contacts good...

Look for products designed to clean and products designed to protect. While some product claim to do both - these are fundamantally different things and 2 seperate products are likely better in my opiniion...

Many different choices and price points on both... you don't need huge quantities of either - so its worth payng for good quality.

Some high mating force connectors may benefit from a little lubrication as well as cleaning - make sure the lubrication has no significant resistance - it will not improve your contacts but it will enable easier future dissassembly (- its just a trade off).

If you have any actual connection problems (poor dash readings, intermittent operation etc) plan to do careful mechanical cleaning too on those parts... Dave has a good write up on how on his site.

On the later Central Electric panels my advice is to only disassemble and mechanically clean up contacts that are suspect since disassessembly is itself awkward and stressfull on the panel components.

Alan

 

"Wally's list [of grounds] is the most comprehensive I've seen."

Wally Who? Where does one find this? URL, please.

 

F4GIB,
Wally Plumley - In the new visitor post pegged to the top of the list - referenced by Randy:

https://rennlist.com/forums/showthre...eferrerid=6055
Post # 33 in that thread.. there are more interseting items - so browse a bit...

Here is the direct page link:

http://members.rennlist.com/jerdmann...l.htm#anchor_2

Alan

Deja Vu ? - did you ask this exact quastion in another thread? - if so sorry I didn't answer you then....

 

Thank you for the advice. I was thinking of cleaning first and then adding something to slow down and possibly stop the oxidation and future maintenance hastles too. i will try radio shack to see what they have.

 

I just surfed around to find a way to order Stabilant. NAPA on-line wants $72 bucks for a teeny-weenie little bottle...

I'm not a cheap skate. But, dAYum...

How long will that $72 bottle last me Dave? (Assuming I don't poke a hole in the bottle accidentally.)

 

Dave, I'm still on the same bottle. I've done my entire CE panel, my pod, central warning brain, all major connectors under the hood including jump post, cruise brain connector, connectors on all exterior lights, connectors in the tire well, and I still had about 1/3 of the original bottle left. Ron_H found a 50mL bottle for ~$75 IIRC, but I can't find the link right now. Ron had so much left he gave me a few mL after we finished his CE panel. I'll drop him a line and see if he can make bail long enough to post his source here.

I don't know how others value their time, but if I've saved myself an hour of trouble with that stuff I'm ahead of the game -- YMMV

 

Oh, one trick to making it last is to apply it with one of those tiny modeling paintbrushes -- you can see the one I used in the next-to-last pic on that page.

 

I'm totally with you on that. Still, is this stuff assembled atom-by-atom by Canadian craftsmen? At roughly $4800 per liter this stuff is more expensive than ink jet printer ink. Somebody go tell HP to raise their cartridge prices...

EDIT: What's with Ron_H and jail?

 

Right !! Ron here !! The guards were looking the other way so I snuck out.

Here is the address of the company from which I got a bottle of Stabilant:

D.W. Electrochemicals Ltd.
97 Newkirk Road North
Richmond Hill, Ontario L4C 3G4
Canada

This is a 50 ml bottle of Stabilant 22S

There, now I can go back to the weights. You're welcome.

 

Thanks Ron! I looked and looked, I thought you had emailed me a link. Sorry to break you away from your routine... I hope you got back in without anyone noticing.

Dave, I know it seems like a lot. but you could probably do all the contacts in all of your sharks with it, and only use half of what's there. Maybe a better way to look at it is, ~$15.00 to treat all of the contacts in your car. A 50mL bottle would be like one of those big jars of anti-seize with the brush in them, that you may have had for 15 years but it's still saving your *** all the time in ways that you don't notice, and you still you take things apart, and there is no drama because the last time you touched it you put anti-seize on it. My car is like that now... no real electrical-related drama, though there are still a few connectors I haven't treated yet -- notably in the console and behind the quarter panels, which I haven't ventured into yet.

And about Ron, he just has a problem with authority.

Of course, I have that same problem -- but somehow I manage to express it while Ron has the bears distracted.

 

Yeah, those damned pesky bears. Always trying to lock me up. No sense of humor.

 

Found a link: http://ralaudio.com/stabilant-22s-co...lled-p-48.html

10ml concentrate in the 50ml bottle is the deal to go for IMHO. What NAPA sells for that price is 15ml diluted product.