Dielectric grease?

daved20319 · Feb 18, 2019

Anyone use this on gimbal and battery contacts? I tend to use it for any electrical or electronic removable contacts that are potentially exposed to the elements, and was thinking the TH would be a logical candidate. It has the added benefit of lubricating those contacts, so stuff goes together and comes apart easier. I can't think of any reason not to use it, but as someone said in a different post, if something goes wrong in your car, it's not falling out of the sky or heading to Timbuktu on its own. So I figured I'd ask here first. Don't you just love new guy syndrome

?

Dave

ThunderChicken · Feb 18, 2019

I would not. If you get some sand on them you might have more trouble than what you are trying to solve.

Steve Carr · Feb 18, 2019

I have used it on the battery contacts just to prevent oxidation. Just a tiny amount and it has to be kept clean.

AH-1G · Feb 18, 2019

daved20319 said:
Anyone use this on gimbal and battery contacts? I tend to use it for any electrical or electronic removable contacts that are potentially exposed to the elements, and was thinking the TH would be a logical candidate. It has the added benefit of lubricating those contacts, so stuff goes together and comes apart easier. I can't think of any reason not to use it, but as someone said in a different post, if something goes wrong in your car, it's not falling out of the sky or heading to Timbuktu on its own. So I figured I'd ask here first. Don't you just love new guy syndrome ?

Dave

No!
I've had my H for two years no issues as you are describing.
Living here in Florida you would expect corrosion, but not any.
Unless dielectric grease dries it will collect dirt, and who knows what else?
Of course this is only my opinion.

PatR · Feb 18, 2019

Read up on dielectric grease. The stuff is an insulator, not a conductor. Using it on electrical contacts is inviting loss of contact.

Steve Carr · Feb 18, 2019

Right. If it were conductive you would need to be very careful when applying it to electrical contacts. I use 90% silicone grease found in the plumbing dept of Ace Hardware. I use it on all types of electrical connections including the trailer harness connectors and the snow plow connectors. It prevents water intrusion as well as corrosion on the metal contacts. It's one of the few products that will not affect plastic and rubber. It is also supplied in small packets with many wiring accessories for ATV's, UTV's and automotive use.
When used sparingly it is a superb product to prevent sticking and seizing. My plow connectors are enormous with 20-30 pins in each connector. They have to be packed full of silicone.
If you choose to use it or not is fine either way.

PatR · Feb 18, 2019

Back in the early days of a certain UAV we had to deal with maintenance documentation that stated "apply a small amount of dielectric grease inside the spark plug boot" to prevent moisture intrusion. It didn't take too long to realize that engines could experience a lot of misfiring or simply stop in flight after a maintenance cycle was performed. Turned out some engineer didn't read the dielectric grease instructions and applicability very well. Had he done so he would have recognized the stuff could be used to coat the rubber inside the cap or to coat the spark plug ceramic insulator between the top and bottm metal sections to prevent arcing. Instead the stuff got placed inside the cap where it could end up crammed between the upper spark plug and plug boot contact area, preventing the transfer of electrical energy. It took only a penny or so worth of dielectric grease to crash a $250.000.00 aircraft...

daved20319 · Feb 19, 2019

PatR said:
Read up on dielectric grease. The stuff is an insulator, not a conductor. Using it on electrical contacts is inviting loss of contact.

I did, after reading this, and you're absolutely right. Guess I'll be a bit more judicious in how I use this in the future, so thanks.

Dave

Dougcjohn · Feb 20, 2019

Not the degree of aerial loss described in Pat's post.
Back in the day of Mst Eng Tech with GM, and the switch to distribuless, coilless ignition using coil spark boots. The field Techs were swapping coil boots at a high rate and plugs were cold coating.

Initially, this new technology was extremely expensive and GM wasn't happy about the number of part failures in their top flagship models and Vett. On a scale that shouldn't exist, this was a costly problem in multiple tangents... customer satisfaction for one!

Came down to a small dab of Dielectric on the boot edge. Techs weren't taking the time to apply and leakage arc to ground over saturating the HE coils causing burnout.

If you've recently purchased almost any brand coil pak, you've probably noticed the pre-installed dielectric gel in boots. Couple cents saves hundreds.
Great Insulator!