cleaning contacts

I have been cleaning and putting dielectric grease on all the connections on a 78 kz750 twin. I want to do the same on the handle bar switches, but Im not sure what to expect when I open them. Am I going to have little parts and pieces flying allover?
Thanks, Jerry

No, just be careful. I use small chain saw sharpening stones in my cordless drill to clean the female bullet connectors.
Steve

I've spent countless hours removing dielectric grease from connections and contacts. It is an insulator and can make contacts flakey.

Swest, I used a small round chainsaw file. Loudhvx, I though thought the purpose of dielectric grease was to keep corrosion off of electrical connecters. I guess I will know what to look for if I start having strange electrical problems.
Thanks, Jerry

I think you would be much happier using Deoxit to clean the connectors.

The D5 is what I have used. store.caig.com/

Yes, you will have small flying parts.

loudhvx wrote: I've spent countless hours removing dielectric grease from connections and contacts. It is an insulator and can make contacts flakey.

Yep. Screwed up my original ignition switch. It is to keep water out of the connections.

Make sure you take the kill knob off and clean that! All your power runs thru 2 little brass 1/8" round connections!

The springs are usually gummed up.
Steve

Thanks for the pictures of the kill switch. It's always nice to know what your getting into.
Thanks, Jerry

I don't know if the grease manufacturer recommends it for the actual metal parts of the connectors, but it is certainly not good for that. The only place I would ever use it would be on modern weatherproof connectors that have rubber of plastic seals, like what you find on modern cars. Then I would only use a tiny bit on the plastic/rubber parts that seal on each other.

The Kz's came with connectors that were fully open to the elements. The grease isn't really going to keep out weather unless you use gobs of it. Then it gets everywhere. If it gets on the metal connectors, it may reduce the surface contact area. On a high-current connection, that will cause it to start heating up (since the current now has less metal to flow through), then that causes the grease to get liquefied and wick in further into the connection. After enough heat and enough grease gets in, the connector will need to be replaced. It's a headache I've been through several times on different cars and bikes. Usually it's the headlight connectors that take the worst hit, at least it's the most noticeable since the lights get very dim. If the connection doesn't use a lot of current, you might never notice a problem.

+1 on the Deoxit... which ever version dries clean, not the grease version. And watch out on plastic... maybe test on stuff you have in a junk pile first. It looks like it may harm ABS, but I don't know what Kawasaki used on switches.

If you are going to be doing a lot of harness work, I recommend the non-adhesive tape, like what the factory used, You can find it on ebay. Oddly, it costs more than the tape with adhesive.

So, now that I screwed up buy greasing some of the connections, while the grease is still fresh and the bike is still striped of tank and plastic, will the contact cleaner get the grease back off? Here I was thinking I was doing a good thing for the old thing. Anyhow, nothing that can't be easily fixed.
Thanks Jerry

Carb and choke cleaner will get most anything off.
Steve