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  #1  
Old 03-Jul-2009, 19:21
Shazaam!'s Avatar
DSC Member Shazaam! Shazaam! is offline
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Big Twin
 
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WD40, Dielectric Grease and Electrical Connectors

WD-40 has no place in electrical connectors or components.

WD-40 is composed of 80% Stoddard Solvent (that is similar to paraffin), 20% light lubricating oil, and a bit of fragrance. So, I advise against using WD-40 in any part of an electrical system because it leaves an oil residue.

Use an electrical contact cleaner instead to remove any grease and oil that is causing conductivity problems. Sticky relays should just be replaced because in the long run they’ll probably fail when you least want them to.

On a wet bike that won’t start, I recommend first using a leaf blower to dry everything out and let it sit in the sun for awhile. It'll start eventually. Then waterproof it.

Waterproofing Your Ducati

Motorcycle electrical systems are more exposed to the elements than cars so it’s important to keep the system sealed against water infusion to avoid corrosion of the electrical connections.

In particular, the electrical connection between the alternator and the regulator carries a very high current, so corrosion there will lead to overheating the connector and adjacent wiring. I recommend eliminating this connector entirely using solder and shrink-tube insulation.

Another problem area is the rubber boot on the electrical connection to the starter motor. It leaks, collects water and corrodes the connection. Here, you need to clean the connection and then seal it watertight with silicon sealant.

Every instrumentation, power and ground connection on the bike is a potential problem. So the best approach is to prevent water from reaching the connections whenever possible and to reduce electrical resistance at each connection.

Care should be taken to avoid forcing water into the connections so set your wash hose nozzle on spray (not stream) and avoid using the high pressure commercial wash/steam systems on your bike.

The connectors are designed to be waterproof, but over time seals will harden and eventually moisture will get in. Some owners make it a practice to using dielectric (non-conducting) grease to keep water out of connectors that don’t get hot enough to cause the grease to liquify.

For connectors that stay cool enough to let the dialectric grease to remain thick, use it to seal the male-female seam so as to prevent water from entering the connector. Don’t put it on the connecting pins themselves. Use in connectors that get hot runs the risk of the grease liquifying and getting on the pin surfaces.

Using dielectric grease on connector pins can be a source of unwanted high resistance. Ferrari used to put dielectric grease inside all of their engine connectors (that will see water) but they eventually found out that it caused problems. They issued a service bulletin that advised cleaning out all of the grease and to use instead a contact enhancing product called Stabilant 22.

http://www.stabilant.com/appnt20h.htm

When applied to an electrical connection Stabilant 22 becomes conductive. The manufacturer claims that it is as good as a soldered joint.

VW, Porsche, BMW and Ferrari all recommend the use of Stabilant 22 on electrical connectors. You can buy it at your local VW parts department. Don't be shocked at the price, a 5ml tube is around $40.

A 15 ml bottle of Stabilant 22 costs $61 a NAPA stores. It's packaged under NAPA's Echlin brand, so when specifying the part number the "line" is ECH and the part number is CE1.

There are some other specialty products that try to address the connector protectant issue. Deoxit for example:

http://shopping.netledger.com/s.nl/c...00f4c50d0dcc64

Another is Boeshield T-9
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  #2  
Old 04-Jul-2009, 01:09
Dougie748's Avatar
Dougie748 Dougie748 is offline
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Posts: 94
Join Date: Oct 2008
Mood: Alway's smiling when on my Duke
Quote:
Originally Posted by Shazaam!
WD-40 has no place in electrical connectors or components.

WD-40 is composed of 80% Stoddard Solvent (that is similar to paraffin), 20% light lubricating oil, and a bit of fragrance. So, I advise against using WD-40 in any part of an electrical system because it leaves an oil residue.

Use an electrical contact cleaner instead to remove any grease and oil that is causing conductivity problems. Sticky relays should just be replaced because in the long run they’ll probably fail when you least want them to.

On a wet bike that won’t start, I recommend first using a leaf blower to dry everything out and let it sit in the sun for awhile. It'll start eventually. Then waterproof it.

Waterproofing Your Ducati

Motorcycle electrical systems are more exposed to the elements than cars so it’s important to keep the system sealed against water infusion to avoid corrosion of the electrical connections.

In particular, the electrical connection between the alternator and the regulator carries a very high current, so corrosion there will lead to overheating the connector and adjacent wiring. I recommend eliminating this connector entirely using solder and shrink-tube insulation.

Another problem area is the rubber boot on the electrical connection to the starter motor. It leaks, collects water and corrodes the connection. Here, you need to clean the connection and then seal it watertight with silicon sealant.

Every instrumentation, power and ground connection on the bike is a potential problem. So the best approach is to prevent water from reaching the connections whenever possible and to reduce electrical resistance at each connection.

Care should be taken to avoid forcing water into the connections so set your wash hose nozzle on spray (not stream) and avoid using the high pressure commercial wash/steam systems on your bike.

The connectors are designed to be waterproof, but over time seals will harden and eventually moisture will get in. Some owners make it a practice to using dielectric (non-conducting) grease to keep water out of connectors that don’t get hot enough to cause the grease to liquify.

For connectors that stay cool enough to let the dialectric grease to remain thick, use it to seal the male-female seam so as to prevent water from entering the connector. Don’t put it on the connecting pins themselves. Use in connectors that get hot runs the risk of the grease liquifying and getting on the pin surfaces.

Using dielectric grease on connector pins can be a source of unwanted high resistance. Ferrari used to put dielectric grease inside all of their engine connectors (that will see water) but they eventually found out that it caused problems. They issued a service bulletin that advised cleaning out all of the grease and to use instead a contact enhancing product called Stabilant 22.

http://www.stabilant.com/appnt20h.htm

When applied to an electrical connection Stabilant 22 becomes conductive. The manufacturer claims that it is as good as a soldered joint.

VW, Porsche, BMW and Ferrari all recommend the use of Stabilant 22 on electrical connectors. You can buy it at your local VW parts department. Don't be shocked at the price, a 5ml tube is around $40.

A 15 ml bottle of Stabilant 22 costs $61 a NAPA stores. It's packaged under NAPA's Echlin brand, so when specifying the part number the "line" is ECH and the part number is CE1.

There are some other specialty products that try to address the connector protectant issue. Deoxit for example:

http://shopping.netledger.com/s.nl/c...00f4c50d0dcc64

Another is Boeshield T-9
Thanks for this reply Shazaam, some excellend advice here. I thought you could use WD40 on electrical parts but now I know different.
I will have another look in the morning and attempt to renew the connection as it was in a poor state before I attempted to clean it. Thanks again for taking the time to reply and your sound advice.
Doug
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  #3  
Old 04-Jul-2009, 14:31
Dougie748's Avatar
Dougie748 Dougie748 is offline
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Posts: 94
Join Date: Oct 2008
Mood: Alway's smiling when on my Duke
Well i was out on bike today and after 24 miles it died again. Same as last weekend battery flat. Bike now in Ducati Glasgow. I will update once they ave diagnosed the fault.
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  #4  
Old 04-Jul-2009, 23:39
TopiToo TopiToo is offline
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Ducati Meccanica
Bikes: 748ish . .
 
Posts: 2,121
Join Date: Sep 2001
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dougie748
Well i was out on bike today and after 24 miles it died again. Same as last weekend battery flat. Bike now in Ducati Glasgow. I will update once they ave diagnosed the fault.

Hello Dougie748

sorry to hear about your day,

I had a simular problem charged the battery went out for a spin
then the bike died, the problem was the battery was not
charging, turned out to be the wiring to/from the regulator so after thicker guage wire was fitted as suggested by Shazaam.
All was running fine, but as you do you get paranoid it will happen again, so for a month or so
I fitted a small LED 12v battery monitor as here
http://www.lascarelectronics.com/panel-meters/
just to keep an eye on what the battery was doing.

The bike is in safe hands now.

Good luck

TopiToo

Last edited by TopiToo : 04-Jul-2009 at 23:45.
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  #5  
Old 07-Jul-2009, 18:37
Dougie748's Avatar
Dougie748 Dougie748 is offline
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Posts: 94
Join Date: Oct 2008
Mood: Alway's smiling when on my Duke
Hi all

Bike in Ducati Glasgow and the fault is the Battery. So new battery fitted and I will collect tomorrow.
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  #6  
Old 11-Jul-2009, 18:19
Dougie748's Avatar
Dougie748 Dougie748 is offline
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Posts: 94
Join Date: Oct 2008
Mood: Alway's smiling when on my Duke
Been out on bike today and all is well. So problem was the Battery.
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  #7  
Old 13-Jul-2009, 15:29
Wulfie's Avatar
Wulfie Wulfie is offline
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Montjuic
 
Posts: 56
Join Date: Apr 2009
Just replaced the wiring from the alternator to the RR this weekend on mine, works fine now. The standard wiring is insufficiently rated for the load when lights etc are all on together. it needs upgrading, all the info is here on the site you just need to look for it. search Shazaams posts he knows the lot. Oh and if you need a new rectifier regulator I have a brand new one for sale you can have it at what it cost me plus the postage here

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=220451483549

Good luck
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