WD40

[legpain]

I know from past posts that WD40 is a bad thing for the HT but I was having problems with a maintenance shutdown and unplugging it wasn’t working. I removed the plugs 5 times in different order, speed, angles, and blowing on the plugs, staring at them till the cows came home, just would not get out of maintenance shutdown. I had my wife go buy some WD40 at Albertson’s and used it just on the top of the plugs, covered around the plugs with a rag, plug them both back in and worked like a charm.

Does anyone know what else I could or should have used?


John

[KSagal]

Many people think of WD40 as a lubricant. It has some of those properties...

I think of it as a solvent. It has the capacity to remove some corrosion, as well as disolve some forms of congealed grease. For this reason, it helps with stuck bolts and items like that.

Many times, rust or other debris is the reason that a bold or nut will not come loose. WD40 is good at penitration in this issue.

Other times people need to lubricate a hinge or some item, because it is sticking. WD40 has an oil base, so it will help in the short term for these applications, but it's other additives cause more sticking of dusts and other dirts, and in the long term, it is a poor lubricant. In the case of a hinge, a drop of machine oil works better and lasts longer...

If your plugs had a pin that was corroded or had a burr that caused it to not seat well, the WD40 may have offered a short term correction, in helping it to seat better into it's counterpart... It is also possible that the solvent component in the WD40 softened the plastic of the connectors, so that they seated better...

As a rule, I don't like to use WD40 too much, though I always have some for it does have very specific and effective uses...

I do not know what was wrong with your machine, but if it was truely in the connectors, I might have tried an electronic contact cleaner. (It used to be referred to as a relay cleaner). These products have similiar solvent features and help to reduce corrosion on conductive metals, but have less negative effect on plastic and no long term fault issues...

If your spray did the job, good for you. The proof is in the pudding. If your machine is working better, and there are no long term problems associated, then you did a good job.

Some will still complain. Glide on past that....

Good job, and good luck...



Karl Ian Sagal

Each road you travel should be just a bit better for having had you pass.

[wwhopper]

Be very careful WD40 is very flamable and a spark may be all it needs to start a fire.

Will W Hopper
DCSEG Member
Come out to the Mid-Atlantic Regional SEG America Event - SegwayFest - DC Sept 23-25 in Washington DC - The Most Segway Friendly City in America!

[austin@SOH]

WD = water displacement... maybe a moisture problem?

Austin Colby (Austin@SOH)
Segway of Hagerstown
339 West Antietam Street
Hagerstown, MD 21740
Phone: (301) 766-0488 Mon-Fri 10am-6pm EST
Fax: (301) 766-0215

[MagiMike]

I know another Segwaychat member Jim Coleman who had a similar problem which he also solved with WD40. It worked but I wondered about the danger of a liquid shorting out the power between pins and frying the electronics in the sister boards. At the very least I'd suggest removing the batteries ( power source ) before anyone else uses this approach. Just one man's humble opinion.

[JD]

I prefer CRC 5-56 or LPS-1 better. I don't like the way WD-40 smells. But I think that KSagal got it right when he suggested contact cleaner. You can get that at Radio Shack.

JD

[glen_d]

When my dad was a cop many years ago, one of his co-workers sent a sample of an "unknown liquid" to the crime lab. A mass spectrometer was used to determine the composition of the liquid. It consisted of just two major ingredients . . . kerosene and the constituents of a perfume.

This satisfied the officer's curiosity (and everyone else at the station) as to just what the heck was in WD-40.

[yosgof]

In IDF officers training it was proven beyond any doubt that WD-40 can solve any problem with any rifle (M-16 included).

It included anything between making the damn thing fire all the way to spit and polish.


- Yossi
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