Electrical Cleaning...

[Blake]

Hey everyone,

as the holidays roll around, and i have a little extra time on my hands, i was just thinking its about time i THOUROUGHLY clean all of the electrical connectors.  But before i start this, i was wondering if any of you had any suggestions as to how to clean those tiny little connectors?  on the male bullet connectors i just wrap a small piece of sandpaper around it and give it a few twists, but what about the female conenctors, or even the white connectors that connect to, say, the TCI module, or flasher relay, etc..???  i already have the white lithium grease to spray on the connectors after they're cleaned, but i could use a few pointors on how to get them cleaned in the first place.


thanks a lot,

Blake

[Lucky]

seriously though, I have some hobby sanding paper, comes on a thin plastic sheet that is very easy to roll up and slip into those female connectors.  It comes in a pack with several grades, I think it's made by Testors.

as for the plug connectors, you can remove those terminals from the plastic by getting hold of a good sized sewing needle (they do have large sized ones) and puting the pointy end into a cork (if you enjoy the wine with a pretty lady, you might not get to fixing the bike)  ;)  with the 'hole' end of the needle, insert it into the connector.  you will have to look and see, but there will be a little tab sticking up from the metal of the connector.  push the wire INTO the plug, (as if you are trying to plug it in by holding the wire instead of the plastic)
push the tab down with the needle and pull the wire out.
after a few times, you will get more skilled at it.  these flat connectors are best cleaned by scraping with a pocket knife and poss a little contact cleaner.
--Lucky

[Glen_H]

Last summer I went through all my connectors and I used a sanding pen.  I picked it up at NAPA, it is essentially a tube with a lot of glass strands in it that come out by turning the top.  It did a really good job and was effective on the connectors that are inside of a cover.  Hope that helps?

Glen H

[silicon_toad2000]

cleanliness is next to godliness is next to vision-ness, am I going too far?
anyways, the grease that you guys use on the elecrtical connectors, what works well and what does not work and what would be downright disasterous?

[Paul_Jungnitsch]

Vaseline works well, non conductive, fairly heavy, waterproof, doesn't stain things, easy on skin. Small tubes are available in any drugstore for cheap. Great for battery posts as well.

[louthepou]

Good tip Paul, the vaseline. Works well on so many things in the shop. Or, you can buy "dielectric" (I think) grease, which is as good but more expensive. I think it's a silicone-based grease. Well, if it's more expensive, then... ah never mind.

Brake cleaner (in spray can) is a good cleaner for electrical connections.

Louis

[Paul_Jungnitsch]

One thing that dielectric stuff is really nice for is greasing up the grommets that the body panels clip too, makes them a lot easier to take on and off and doesn't rot the rubber. Other than that I don't like working with it that much, the stuff I got feels almost exactly like a runny silicone sealant that never sets up.

[silicon_toad2000]

I thought I'd be after a conductive grease to use in the electrical connectors. Isn't dialectric grease conductive?

[Walt_M.]

Dielectric is non-conductive. The object is to coat the connectors with it. When you put them together, the grease is scraped off the conducting surfaces but remains on the exposed metal and prevents electrolytic corrosion. It works pretty well. It is a bit expensive but a little goes a long way and you won't have to do it again for a very long time.

[Lucky]

Rick G reccomends dipping the connectors in TSP. which I believe is a hard water stain remover. (Trisodiumphosphate, I believe). rinse the connectors out well & dry with compressed air.
Really any type of grease will keep connectors from corroding. i've allways used wheel bearing grease on battery terminals.  grease is just a thicker form of oil, and any oil will protect metal.

Whatever you use, be religous about the maintenance.
--Lucky

[Walt_M.]

I would not recommend wheel bearing grease for electrical connectors. It is made so that it is not easily scraped off! Coating battery terminals would be ok I guess but silicon grease is easier to work with and cleanup is easier.

[MotorPlow]

I dipped the connectors in CLR and then dipped them in water.  As I don't have an air compressor, I ended the process by spraying the connectors with WD40.  That was a year ago, haven't had any electrical problems (knock on wood).  It's about time to do it all again.

Chris F.

[Rick G]

Lucky, TSP might work but what I used was CLR , the calcium, lime , rust remover for plumbing fixtures. As, Chris said dip them in CLR for a couple of min. then is water and finally spray them with WD 40 . I did mine  2 years ago and have used this method  on several other bikes , I don't thing it needs to be done every year , maybe every 5 or so. This methods eliminates all the tedious work trying to get the pins out of the plastic sockets  and the risk of damaging some of them. They are 22 tears old and probably a little brittle.