Cleaning connectors

bclark

bclark

Senior member
Went to warm up the triple today and.. no ignition light. Had a play around with the voltmeter and low and behold I noticed the light on. Cranked it and it cranked for a short spin then.. nothing and.. no light.

Finally found that wobbling the main Amphenole type 6 wire connector (under ignition module) made light go on, off, on. The connector has contact grease in it and the contacts were not shiny but look clean.

Went to town with a nail file on the mail contacts and less to town on the more difficult female ones. Tried wobbling it once connected and the light goes on, off, on accordingly.

Anyone used this stuff:
http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_195717_langId_-1_categoryId_255223#tab3
?

 
More likely to be a broken wire / connection if the connector was full of grease.  Using a nail file is not recommended....it (obviously) tends to remove metal as well as corrosion making future problems and poor contact more likely.  This is kinder http://www.maplin.co.uk/abrasive-fibreglass-pencil-3932
Aged insulation puts increasing strain on the conductor strands when subject to vibration.  From what you've found, I don't think contact cleaner will be the answer in this case...
 
Yes I did only just scratch/brighten up the surface with the file (actually a needle file rather than a nail file) - now you mention it I have one of those pens somewhere (to be honest I thought it would just work with a modicum of effort).

Will look into it a bit deeper tomorrow (this could well be my unexplained occasional misfire) and I'll probably get some of the contact cleaner for the shed (might help with the Mini 95)..
 
Those female 1/4" spade terminals can be easily extracted from the plug with a little jewelers screwdriver.  Remove them and tidy them up and also give them a light squash with pliers to tighten them up again- they loosen over time.  I experienced this exact problem just 6 days ago in fact... :)
Cheers
SteveB
 
Had an ocassional misfire in my commando once, while fiddling with the ignition I found that one of the ignition wires had a break about 100mm up the wire, replaced both wires, new connectors misfire gone.
Morale? the wiring is over 40 years old.
 
For cleaning corrosion from connectors, you might search for DeOxIt.  It's a sort of supercharged contact cleaner.  Marvelous stuff in a spray can.
No, I have no franchise to sell this.  I'm just a satisfied customer.
 
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