Cleaning electrical connectors with salt and vinegar mixed. PICS ADDED!

[b5blue]

OK I'm researching an effective way to clean connectors in the wire harness. First I tried just vinegar, not much happened. Went to You Tube and found for cleaning copper add salt to the vinegar. It's working quite well on an old connector that was green/brown from being 40 years old. In 1/2 hour or so the copper color has returned to all but a few of the spots that were blackened from where the connector rested inside the plastic connector and really got soaked from a leaky part of the car. I'm thinking of making small cups of solution so I can unplug things and "dunk them" for awhile. After cleaning the plan is to give them a really good rinse and blow dry with my compressor's blow tip. A few squirts of alcohol (Maybe Denatured alcohol as it is better at evaporating) Then coat with my "Caig Lab's" DeoxIT D100L to protect it. Any other ideas/opinions?    (Next I'll be checking conductivity of my test parts to see if the crimps attachment to the wire is degraded electrically)

[1BAD68]

Interesting, I would love to see before and after shots.

[b5blue]

Take a cup and a penny, put a little vinegar and salt in the cup and mix it up, drop in the penny and you can see it happen. (my camera is discharged right now) On You Tube search "Cleaning copper". (They use lemons and salt, also ketchup!)    My piece is dry and looks nice, I'm gonna leave it outside to see if it corrodes quickly in the humid Florida air. I will get the camera charged back up and get photos as I test more stuff.

[b5blue]

Here is a simple story of what I'm doing: http://www.exploratorium.edu/science_explorer/copper_caper.html

[maxwellwedge]

All of the above work great on French Fries too! 

[b5blue]

Yea I've been craving fish and chips for days!    Testing is going well, pics. are pointless with my crappy camera though, no real close up feature. Now I'm looking into getting some 20% vinegar as the process seems too slow with 5% food grade vinegar. I'm playing around with ratios of mix, 1 cup of vinegar and 1 teaspoon of salt works but slowly, 1/2 to 1 hour gives a distinct improvement but is awkward to deal with. On just my headlight sockets alone placing my little potato salad tub where it can dunk the connector and hold it in place for that long of a bath proved a challenge. Flushing out with water then treating by spraying alcohol in the connector is giving a stable finish, my reading up proved you need to halt the posses or the copper will corrode (oxidize) even faster drying out.   

[b5blue]

Tests are working well! I found Balsamic vinegar at 6% works better (tastes better too!) and be liberal with the salt. I wish my camera would do close ups as the effect on my bulkhead connectors was very dramatic! They all came back to a bright new penny color from dark brown and just the 1% extra gave much faster results. I got the inside part of my bulkhead connector swung down by the floorboard and rested a container on towels to make a level spot. It soaked for 35 minutes after I cleaned it up with some 409 to remove any grime from 40 years of age. Everything got repeatedly dunked or swished around to circulate the mix well inside the plastic connectors every 5-10 minutes and lightly scrubbed with a small cheap paintbrush to loosen the oxide faster. Dunking with fresh water and letting it soak for 10 minutes stops the action and the spraying of alcohol gets rid of the water faster. TRY IT!!!

[b5blue]

Camera is working, here is what's happening:

[Nacho-RT74]

GREAT!

[BigBlockSam]

  i'm gonna try that . thanks

[66FBCharger]

That looks like it works great. Maybe after soaking, rinsing and neutralizing, you would want to fill the connector with dielectric grease to prevent corrosion.

[twodko]

B5Blue,

That's an excellent tip, it looks new almost. Dielectric grease is handy stuff, I used it on the hood mounted turn signal indicator assembly.

Tom

[b5blue]

Right the stuff I use is an anti oxidant not just a protector but it's not cheap and the salt/vinegar works so well dielectric grease would be fine. If you Google it you'll find it is used in new computer and high end electronic equipment by HP and others. The balsamic vinegar at 6% really works better/faster but check the labels as some are only 5%. Horticultural vinegar can be had at up to 20% (for killing weeds) but it's hard to find and may be too strong, I was concerned about the stuff getting in the crimp area and not getting deactivated leading to accelerated corrosion down the road. Flush and soak with clean water (change it out) several times.       

[GreenMachine]

  I'm wondering how well media blasting with baking soda would work. I've done it with white sand in a cabinet, but wouldn't want to do it on the car because of the mess. The white sand etches the metal which might cause it to corrode faster. Baking soda doesn't etch and should vacuum up easier. I'm not sure if it would need to be neutralized either. Thoughts?
  Also B5Blue, do you think it would work as well soaking a paper towel with the solution and wedging it in the connector?

[66FBCharger]

Has anyone tried to use Evapo Rust to remove corrosion yet? It works great on rusty iron and steel parts! I would think it would work great on electrical connections.

[HANDM]

I'm thinking of trying some "metal ready" for cleaning the connections. It worked great on the ammeter connections. Gonna try one small connector and see how well it does

[HANDM]

No luck with the metal ready, seems to work for steel, will use it on the bulb sockets and whatnot. Got some connectors soaking in basalmic and salt now.

Oh the fun I can have while home sick
I am doing the whole dash harness by the way, I'll letcha know how it turns out

[HANDM]

Working great, got another couple of bundles to do yet. Gonna do the under hood ones as well. Can't hurt to be thorough

[b5blue]

  I'm wondering how well media blasting with baking soda would work. I've done it with white sand in a cabinet, but wouldn't want to do it on the car because of the mess. The white sand etches the metal which might cause it to corrode faster. Baking soda doesn't etch and should vacuum up easier. I'm not sure if it would need to be neutralized either. Thoughts?
  Also B5Blue, do you think it would work as well soaking a paper towel with the solution and wedging it in the connector?

I used a small container and swished the solution around so it circulated inside the plastic coupler by dunking it in and out every now and then. Experiment any way you can think of. I think the solution needs to be fresh, it worked well mixing small batches and using them right away. Of course as I said flush everything very thoroughly with clean water you want to really get rid of the salt in between the copper and plastic and get it all out of the crimp/wire connection. I put a rag down or around the treated part and sprayed 70% alcohol to further flush and chase the rise water out by putting a sprayer from 409 cleaner on top of the alcohol bottle, that could work as a delivery system for the solution and rinse also.      

[b5blue]

No luck with the metal ready, seems to work for steel, will use it on the bulb sockets and whatnot. Got some connectors soaking in basalmic and salt now.

Oh the fun I can have while home sick
I am doing the whole dash harness by the way, I'll letcha know how it turns out

Glad to see it helping....the metal ready is for steel or iron only I believe, I have OSPHO......much stronger, too strong for copper, you don't want to etch just remove the oxidized copper, etching would end up accelerating re oxidizing later. I can't stress enough flushing all this out/off as any residue left will accelerate corrosion even if trapped under dielectric grease. I rinsed then soaked for 5-10 minutes then re flushed using new water each time before the alcohol blasting to chase and dry out the water. Any oily film will need to be cleaned well before treating also. Post pics of results if possible.

[jlatessa]

It might help to add a little baking soda to your rinse water, It will neutralize the acid better.

Joe

[383me]

i use { CLR } used it to lean inside and out of all my break lines fuel lines and works on the copper connectors as well, it feels weird on the hands but works well,
sorry new guy here,its what i have used for years on my old cars ..
hope it helps

[Highbanked Hauler]

b5 blue I am exactly where you are now so vinegar and a little salt does it huh???

[b5blue]

YUP! 

[runningman]

Neal,

Thanks for the info!  I'll be doing this as well 

Matt