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

[b5blue]

Hey Matt! Everyone feel free to post pics also. Try different ratios of vinegar to salt and penny's make good test subjects. I felt like it worked best as a fresh mix, but can't say for sure that was the case. 

[runningman]

Glad to see your project is progressing!  I have been working a ton and have been helping coach my son's football team so haven't had much time to work on mine.  Gonna try and start up again next week though.  I had been wondering how to clean these contacts.  I was thinking of removing each one to clean but this is a much better method!!

Matt

[XH29N0G]

I am aware that this is an old thread, but thought I would add another twist.  It is also possible to heat up the vinnegar.  I did this using a microwave and the baking soda to the rinse and it worked very well for fixing the dash dimmer switch. 

[b5blue]

Good idea! I use table salt but if it works it works! 

[b5blue]

Update coming soon. I finally have new front light and dash harness to install. I'll be examining all areas that were treated very closely. 4 years should be a good gauge of how this holds up over time.       I'll be looking very closely at the crimps where wire joins the connector, the hardest area to deep flush after cleaning. I've had zero issues since cleaning and coating with DL-100 (DeOxIt) 

[HANDM]

Update,
all connections are still clean and looking good. The fuse holders however, which I cleaned with a combo of vinegar/ salt for the copper and metal ready for the actual fuse connectors, are a little rusty. Seems that the metal ready took some sort of protection off of it........ Hasn't posed any problems as of yet

[tsmithae]

I used lemon juice, fine sandpaper, and steel wool IIRC and it had very similar results. It would be a REALLY good idea to coat everything with a dielectric grease before reconnecting everything.  

[b5blue]

I use Caig Lab's products, Protect it Gold and DeOxIt. The same stuff used on assembly of the computer your on!  Under the hood and around the exterior stuff that is exposed the grease is good. CLEANING after treating is most important! I flush very well with a spray bottle of pure H2O then follow with a spray bottle of 91% alcohol to 2nd chase any residue and speed drying. The new harness will be soaked with "Gold" on any connections and bulk head packed after treating.   

[Hop Head]

Hey, the bulkhead looks great. Has anyone tried to clean the female side of the bulkhead. Mine is pretty bad, and it really needs to be treated. I've never removed one, can I assume it needs to be removed from inside the car. And will there be enough room to allow for soaking the whole connector. I really don't want to pay the crazy high price for a new harness.

[tsmithae]

I did clean the female side.  There would be a couple different ways to attack it.  The Caig's Lab products in an aerosol would be a nice way to clean, deoxidize, and protect without having to remove everything. 

If your harness is already removed, you could use citric acid, vinegar, etc to soak and clean. I personally had removed every piece of wiring and took the contacts out of the connectors to inspect for fraying, loose connections, broken shields, etc.  I wound up cleaning everything with a citric acid bath, small brass brush, sandpaper, and replacements when necessary.

The male terminals can be removed by pinching the sides and pushing from the front out the back.  The female terminals have a tab on the top that needs to be depressed from the engine bay side and pushed out the back. A small pick worked great for me. 

Before reassembly, I packed every socket in the bulkhead with dielectric, soldered each connection (to guarantee a solid connection that won't wind up corroding), coated each terminal in dielectric, and reinserted with a nice tug in each to ensure it wouldn't back out. 

Is it a little over-the-top... maybe.  Will I worry about my electrical system?  No.

[b5blue]

Hey, the bulkhead looks great. Has anyone tried to clean the female side of the bulkhead. Mine is pretty bad, and it really needs to be treated. I've never removed one, can I assume it needs to be removed from inside the car. And will there be enough room to allow for soaking the whole connector. I really don't want to pay the crazy high price for a new harness.

I did the bulkhead by unplugging everything and pulling it down. I whipped up a batch of mix and put it in a cut down plastic container that fit the bulkhead size. Put towels down to handle spilling and the flushing, you can prop the container up to let it soak. Just keep checking and when clean flush the heck out of it, you need to remove ANY mix from the hidden crimped areas or it will continue to bite and accelerate corrosion over time! (I really blast water in there several times with any old spray bottle into each connector and repeat with 91% alcohol at least 2-3 times. If you have a compressor blow everything out well after final rinsing and only treat with protection after fully bone dry. 
  For some reason the mix works MUCH better when fresh mixed, stuff I made even an hour earlier was real slow acting? 

[b5blue]

I just grabbed the box with my now removed dash harness and had a good look with a bright flashlight. I can clearly tell what I treated from what I left. After 4 years it still looks good. My camera sucks at close ups but I'll try over the weekend. 

[b5blue]

Just a heads up after many years zero issues from outlined treatment. Cleaned harnesses were even passed on to others when replaced.