Vinegar is a mild acid and does a great job of gently cleaning rusted parts. It's harmless to paint and plastic. So I have been dropping electrical connectors into it to get into all the places I can't clean. Great idea. One I did this to was the connector to the rectifier.
Some of you might see where this is going......
After a while I check on it and the vinegar was green. Hmm. The terminals didn't seem that bad. I looked at the plug. Instead of shiny clean copper I saw them covered with green and one partially eaten away. :shock:
Have you figured out what I did wrong yet?
The one eaten was to the red wire. :doh:
Hot 12v wire + ground wire + acid = electroplating. The battery was hooked up. The hot lug was being torn apart atom by atom and deposited on the ground, with lots left over to get on the others, too. If I had left it on all night there would have been no lug left. As it was the damage wasn't too bad and there's enough left to do the job. So while this is a great tip to clean connections, disconnect the battery when you do it.
Some of you might see where this is going......
After a while I check on it and the vinegar was green. Hmm. The terminals didn't seem that bad. I looked at the plug. Instead of shiny clean copper I saw them covered with green and one partially eaten away. :shock:
Have you figured out what I did wrong yet?
The one eaten was to the red wire. :doh:
Hot 12v wire + ground wire + acid = electroplating. The battery was hooked up. The hot lug was being torn apart atom by atom and deposited on the ground, with lots left over to get on the others, too. If I had left it on all night there would have been no lug left. As it was the damage wasn't too bad and there's enough left to do the job. So while this is a great tip to clean connections, disconnect the battery when you do it.
