Electrical contact cleaner/preservative

Many guys here probably use Wd-40 on the electrical contacts on their bikes like the fuse clips,bullet connectors, etc. I used to until the day I went to start my bike; turned the key, no fuel pump sound,horn,or lights.

My first thought was the battery died or the ground cable came loose but I had rode just that morning with no problem.
I happened to have some 400 grit sandpaper in my tool kit and by removing the older glass tubed fuses one at a time,scratching the now insulating film from the fuses and clips was able to get home. I later removed this film from the rest of the bikes electrical connectors.

I've been using an electrical contact cleaner for many years made by Caig Labs out of San Diego Ca. www.caig.com is the website. I use it on audio patch cords, cordless phone charging cradles and all electrical connectors on my bike.

Yep, there are a variety of folks making that kind of stuff and it's faaaaar better for that its intended purpose than WD40.
However, those electronics-type sprays won't last in a motorcycle environment and really should be used more as a
cleaner rather than a long-life protectant.
What you SHOULD be applying on a bike's connectors, etc AFTER using the spray cleaner of your choice is some dielectric grease for long-life corrosion prevention. Dielectric grease will last for years on the average bike in most connector applications. It also offers a certain level of waterproofing as well.
It's widely available at auto chain stores and is sometimes sold as "tuneup grease".
I always have a spray bomb of cleaner and a giant economy sized tube of dielectric grease to hand when doing any electrical work on my bikes. Cheap insurance, IMO.

there are a lot of electronic cleaners and sealers aval today,,, LPS, CRC, are just a couple of brands, I would suggest using the cleaner first then the sealer, works well

del

MFolks wrote:

Many guys here probably use Wd-40 on the electrical contacts on their bikes like the fuse clips,bullet connectors, etc. I used to until the day I went to start my bike; turned the key, no fuel pump sound,horn,or lights.

My first thought was the battery died or the ground cable came loose but I had rode just that morning with no problem.
I happened to have some 400 grit sandpaper in my tool kit and by removing the older glass tubed fuses one at a time,scratching the now insulating film from the fuses and clips was able to get home. I later removed this film from the rest of the bikes electrical connectors.

I've been using an electrical contact cleaner for many years made by Caig Labs out of San Diego Ca. www.caig.com is the website. I use it on audio patch cords, cordless phone charging cradles and all electrical connectors on my bike.

Any contact cleaner that works is some kind of fast drying solvent that dries and leaves absolutely no residue. The point is, it washes any oil or slime off as the solvent is blown onto the contacts, and then it dries leaving the contacts clean.

Contacts MUST NOT be coated with anything like oil, which means WD-40 is probably the worst thing to use since it oxidizes into a varnishy slime over time.

In general, contacts are tin plated when made to resist oxidation or corrosion. Better ones are gold plated. Crappy ones are bare copper. Copper contacts do tend to oxidize over time and need buffing clean. Here's a tip I used a lot:

If some contact that's giving you trouble is bare copper, you can use a scotchbrite pad to polish it up nice and shiny. Then, tin it lightly using electronic rosin core solder. Then, use solder wick to strip off all excess solder. Then, clean it completely with acetone. That gives a pretty decent tin plating that will hold up a lot better than copper alone does.

i use dielectric grease for anything electrical switches,connectors,spark plug boots,for battery termanals i use battery cable end spray.

careful with the contact cleaner some brands make plastic
crumble in your fingers (it wasn't my cell phone)never had any problems with brake cleaner though

I only use WD40 on my arthritis. :laugh:

There are a LOT of folks convinced it's made to use on electrical components though. Back in the 80's, I had a fellow bring me a audio mixing console for repair that he had just "cleaned" with WD40. That was a VERY expensive lesson he learned!

Sonny

I never use dielectric grease and dread any time I come across a bike with it. Its a fluid insulator and with heat can wick into contacts. Much like the WD40 example, it can eventually prevent continuity. It sucks troubleshooting a bike which may have multiple discontinuities.

I use cleaners only. But as Baldtire said, you can't use it on every type of plastic. The nylon looking connectors seem ok, but acrylic (like phone/rj45) connectors do seem to crumble.

Like Bountyhunter said, bare copper connectors (ie worn contacts) needs some tinning or they will corrode fast.

Liquid tape or other hardening sealers seem to be ok as long as they only seal the outside, but it's not fun peeling the stuff off.

I guess I'm old fashioned, but I only use cleaner and electrical tape, and new connectors whenever I can. I know people won't agree, but I also crimp connectors and avoid soldering if possible. Soldered connections are weaker and tend to break sooner than crimp connectors.

In my experiance in the Defence Industry the only soldered connection on cables had strain reliefs clamping the wires so movement was almost impossible.

The other types of wires were crimped into the various male/female pins with a four sided eight dentent crimp and then the wires were inserted into the connector through a silicone rubber insulator that retained the pins.

Printed circuit boards had the interface cables secured so movement was again next to impossible.

All wire terminations were crimped as soldering will make the joint fail due to brittleness. You don't want a 4.75 million dollar missile failing because some wires broke/came loose! (The AGM-129A at 1993 prices).