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Dielectric grease on connection ends

I was changing a coil on one of my bikes earlier, and as always, applied a light film of dielectric grease on the coil outputs, and on the spark plug boots. A thought occurred to me that this may be a valid application in audio connections as well. A small amount applied with a cotton swab to bananas/spades/rca's etc. may help, and I'm thinking about giving it a go. Was wondering if this has been tried by any other members, and thoughts on the pro/con aspects.
128x128crazyeddy
darkmatters
13 posts
 
Crazyeddy

Just go to Partsconnexions website in Ontario, Canada. They have a large range of DeOxit and a ton of other goodies.

Cheers DM
slaw's avatar
slaw
21,396 posts
 
FWIW:

I tried the Sil-Clear in the past. Like others reported, it's messy at the very least.

I bought a very nice amplifier used on-line years ago. When I listened to it, it was unimpressive. I took the cover off and went in to clean connections. The upgraded fuses had a slight coating of this crap. I cleaned everything and the sound opened up. I called the previous owner to remark about it, he said, "I liked the sound that way".
slaw's avatar
slaw
21,396 posts
 
....he had also screwed around with the bias as well...
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 

slaw
FWIW:
I tried the Sil-Clear in the past. Like others reported, it’s messy at the very least.

I bought a very nice amplifier used on-line years ago. When I listened to it, it was unimpressive. I took the cover off and went in to clean connections. The upgraded fuses had a slight coating of this crap. I cleaned everything and the sound opened up. I called the previous owner to remark about it, he said, "I liked the sound that way".

My guess is the fuses were in the WRONG direction when you received the amplifier. After you cleaned the fuses you inadvertently reinserted them in the CORRECT direction. The previous owner was probably not into the whole fuse directionality thing.

"He had also screwed around with the bias as well."

bingo!
astro58go
542 posts
 
jetter,

I clean my receptacles contacts as well as all other connections at least once a year. Always have.

My story regarding automotive,, I have a Ford F-150 that I purchased new in 1990, I've always tried to perform as much mechanical work as possible by myself.

I had changed the alternator. I was driving down the road one day and noticed smoke coming from under the hood. After I found a local gas station and after the electrical fire was put out, I realized that I did not change the pigtail that comes with a dielectric grease installed to keep this sort of thing from happening.

This moved me up the ladder from a shade-tree-mechanic to a road-side-mechanic.
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