Battery Replacement proceedure...

[robtheplod]

In my simple way of thinking surely its best to apply the grease/Vaseline etc after its all connected as its a barrier to protect from elements or have i got this wrong?

[Tony Brooks]

31 minutes ago, robtheplod said:

In my simple way of thinking surely its best to apply the grease/Vaseline etc after its all connected as its a barrier to protect from elements or have i got this wrong?

 

Then you risk have crevices between the post and clamp into which acid can creep and strat corrosion. If you Vaseline the post the clamp will squeeze all the Vaseline out of the parts where the clamp makes contact with the post while leaving any crevices full of Vaseline which prevents acid getting in to them

Edited February 8, 2022 by Tony Brooks

[robtheplod]

4 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:

 

Then you risk have crevices between the post and clamp into which acid can creep and stat corrosion. If you Vaseline the post the clamp will squeeze all the Vaseline out of the parts where the clamp makes contact with the post while leaving any crevices full of Vaseline which prevents acid getting in to them

ah.... thanks for that.... makes sense....

[nicknorman]

When I installed my Li cells I put a thin smear of Vaseline on the mating surfaces. So far, 200A can happily flow through it with no detectable voltage drop.

[Ronaldo47]

Using Vaseline on battery lugs was recommended in the Rootes workshop manual for the Hillman Imps that  myself and my wife ran between us for more than 30 years, and I have continued to use it on my subsequent cars with no problems.

 

I have a circa 1930 text book on power electrical engineering where the use of Vaseline is recommended for making reliably low resistance bolted joints in high current  aluminium bus bars. After applying a thick coating of Vaseline to the areas where contact was to be made, those areas were to be filed bright through the Vaseline with a coarse file, and then bolted together without removing the dirty Vaseline. It was said that joints made in this way were still sound at the time of writing after more than 30 years' service.

 

The surface of Aluminium immediately oxidises on exposure to the atmosphere, and the Vaseline prevents  the re-formation of a non- conductive aluminium oxide surface layer after the oxide layer has been filed off.

 

While not essential, the book says that the same method can be used with advantage for joining  copper bus bars.  The bare surface of copper (and lead) does progressively oxidise in air, although much, much more slowly than aluminium. 

 

I clean the lead posts bright with steel wool before applying Vaseline. I never use emery cloth, as it can leave behind a deposit of the adhesive that is used to stick the abrasive particles to the cloth.  I learned this many years ago from a plumber friend when I mentioned I was having problems making leak-free joints in copper pipe when using Yorkshire solder ring fittings. I had been burnishing the pipe ends bright with emery cloth.

 

 

Edited February 8, 2022 by Ronaldo47

[MtB]

On goggling there is endless debate about whether Vaseline conducts electricity, e.g. this thread here:

 

http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=29636.0

 

 

[Guest]

44 minutes ago, MtB said:

On goggling there is endless debate about whether Vaseline conducts electricity, e.g. this thread here:

 

http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=29636.0

 

 

 

Been applying vaseline to battery terminals for the best part of 40 years....

 

Whether it conducts electricity or not it seems to aid removal of the terminal come the time you need to do so.

[Martin Nicholas]

The proper stuff: Contact Grease for Batteries, Heavy Current Terminal. Maybe not for lead terminal posts though, the datasheet doesn't make that clear.

Edited February 9, 2022 by Martin Nicholas
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[Machpoint005]

On 08/02/2022 at 09:25, Alan de Enfield said:

as it ran down inside the car-wing it would sit and gently corrode the wing away.

 

...meeting the salt-induced corrosion from the outside, halfway through!

 

 

[ditchcrawler]

We use to use red greasy stuff called Nocrode or something similar.

 

[MtB]

44 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

We use to use red greasy stuff called Nocrode or something similar.

 

 

 

I had a goggle for 'electrically conductive grease'. The whole subject seems to be a minefield.