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On 23 Oct 2002, at 19:03, Westfalia wrote: > I'd like something I could dip spade connectors > (female) in and not have a clumped on mess. Some sort of mild acid > maybe...then a water bath and then a dielectric grease. If the spade connectors still have their spring to them they really don't need to be clean. As long as they are free of loose dirt and grit they will be fine. The contact takes place at small areas where the pressure (force/area) is high and they wipe there and create their own contact area which is actually gas-tight (this is the actual industrial term.) They will easily wipe thru tarnished areas, but dirt and grit will keep the contacts apart and prevent any contact areas from actually being gas-tight. Contacts which are not gas tight will eventually oxidize and lose conductivity. What I'd really recommend would be water and a toothbrush. Add some soap if the parts are oily. Contacts which are loose but still have their spring can be tightened up very carefully with a pair of pliers. Be careful not to overdo it. If the contacts have lost their spring the only solution is to replace them. This is harder than it appears because few of us have ever even seen the correct kind of tool which will produce a long lived gas-tight crimp, like the factory ones. I ususally crimp and then solder, just to be sure. Sometimes it is hard to get the solder to stick to the corroded wire strands, so I dip the end in Muriatic (cheap grade hydrochloric) acid, which is available in hardware stores. You could do this with the spade connectors, too; it will make them pretty but 99.9% of what you can see is irrelevant, and your connections still need to be cleaned of dirt and grit to be reliable. One nice thing about the Muriatic acid is that it just evaporates and doesn't leave any residue that you need to worry about. I usually don't put grease on these connections unless they are directly exposed to the weather, because grease will hold dirt that falls there and keep it in place where it will hurt you if you ever disconnect and reconnect that terminal. I DO put grease on bulb connections, both shell and tip, because these are MUCH lower pressure and tend to not be gas-tight. Bulb connections tend to corrode. I think the thing that saves them is the fact that the bulb is heavy and tends to vibrate some, thus wearing the corrosion away. - Jim Adney jadney@vwtype3.org Madison, WI 53711-3054 USA ------------------------------------------------ To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <type3-off@vwtype3.org> For more help, see http://vwtype3.org/list/