dielectric grease conductant or not WAS:FW: 90q missing on cy l 5...con't.

[james accordino]

I did not mean to imply, nor do I believe that
dielectric grease does anything to enhance or improve
electric current flow.  If your connectors are hosed,
they're hosed.  That's it.  You can either clean them
really well, or replace them with either new factory
ones or someother type of connector.  I am only
stating that the stuff WILL keep out water and prevent
corrosion of clean terminals.  Period.  If you have
good, clean connectors and put the grease in there,
you can blast away with all the high pressure water,
solvents, whatever you want.  Unless the protective
boot is gone, the connection will not be compromised.
It also seems to have wonderful preservative
properties for the rubber booties.  Not really
surprising since it's got silicone as it's main
ingredient.  I wash my engine/engine compartment
frequently, and have never had a problem with any
sound connections so treated.  YMMV.  Huw?

Jim Accordino

--- urq <urq at pacbell.net> wrote:
> ... sorry, but I must beg to differ ... dielectric
> grease is an insulator
> ... it contains nothing to help electrical
> connections.  Given that you get
> metal to metal contact in a connector, dielectric
> grease will not affect the
> connection.  If you put dielectric grease on a new
> connector I do agree that
> the grease can help to prevent corrosion, but if you
> are talking about a
> connector that is already somewhat oxidized the
> dielectric grease isn't
> going to help anything ... AAMOF, I can see that in
> the case of a poor
> contact, applying heat from a poor, high current
> connection might even cause
> problems with cooking of the grease.  Note that I
> don't have any
> documentation showing this will happen ... just
> thinking out loud ...
>
> Don't get me wrong ... I am also a big supporter of
> dielectric grease ... I
> just want to make sure that everyone understands
> what it does and what it
> does not do.  If you have a situation where contacts
> have been compromised
> you really should seriously consider using a contact
> enhancer to recover the
> contacts ... and if it makes sense use dielectric
> grease to ensure that the
> contact does not get too much further contamination.
>  Just like dielectric
> grease does not improve the contacts, contact
> enhancer doesn't do too much
> in the way of sealing.  Perhaps Caig's "cailube"
> might actually serve both
> purposes.  If you are talking about screwed down
> lugs or battery terminals
> ... especially clean connections, dielectric grease
> should be sufficient.
> Contact enhancer is primarily used for connectors
> which have some sort of
> quick connect/disconnect.
>
> I have not sprung for the Stabilant stuff, but given
> how little is needed,
> the expense is not really that high.
>
> HTH!
> Steve Buchholz
> San Jose, CA (USA)


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