How do you care for your batteries, connections and crimp terminals?

[Watt]

Here is the products I use for connections and terminals.

The Burndy Penetrox A joint compound I have found to be pretty awesome when used to crimp terminals for batteries.  I fill the fitting and crimp it down.  I wipe the excess and do not worry about acid.  A simple cleaning with the spray cleaner and protector spray on the outside seems to be all the cables need.  From another thread, I was turned on to the acid detector.  So far, I've found a tiny burned hole in one of my lift batteries, from welding at one time, and did a simple repair with plastic weld epoxy stuff.  So, if you have a better product and some advice, I'd really like to be turned on to what works better. 

As far as cleaning, I use the good ole' baking soda and water mixture.  What do you use?

[tomw]

They need care?

Tom

[WooferHound]

Where do you buy the stuff ?

At the Battery Store where I always buy my batteries, I'll always ask about purchasing the things you mentioned and other stuff related to batteries, but they seem to only be interested in selling batteries and not the accessories. I am always able to get them to give me a couple of the corrosion preventing felt washers. And they will thoroughly clean and treat the terminals of every battery they sell.

[ChrisOlson]

When I build battery cables I have always just put a dab of dielectric grease in the cable end before I put it on the cable.  I clean them off with baking soda and use regular old WD-40 sprayed on the terminals to help prevent green and white Battery Mold.
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Chris

[ghurd]

Where do you buy the stuff ?

Auto parts stores.
G-

[Watt]

Where do you buy the stuff ?

At the Battery Store where I always buy my batteries, I'll always ask about purchasing the things you mentioned and other stuff related to batteries, but they seem to only be interested in selling batteries and not the accessories. I am always able to get them to give me a couple of the corrosion preventing felt washers. And they will thoroughly clean and treat the terminals of every battery they sell.

Woof, we bought the Penetrox A at a local electrical supply store.  The Lynx supplies came from Advance Auto Parts and the CRC cleaner indicator came from a local bolt and chemical store called Angelo Bolt.  We looked at two local Wal-mart's and couldn't for the stuff.  They had a label on the shelf for cleaner/indicator but no product. 

Tom,
Mine do, I must be doing something wrong. 

Chris, I hadn't heard of using WD-40 in a while.  I may give that a try.  Heck, I have that stuff laying around everywhere.  The stuff of 1000's of uses 

[ChrisOlson]

Chris, I hadn't heard of using WD-40 in a while.  I may give that a try.  Heck, I have that stuff laying around everywhere.  The stuff of 1000's of uses 

It really does.  I heard one time that it has fish oil in it.  It works on firearms to keep them from rusting.  I buy the stuff in a one gallon can and dump it in squirt bottles.  I got squirt bottles of the stuff handy all over the shop for anything that might need it from a rusty door hinge to a bolt with a frozen nut.  Just heat the nut up red with the torch, spray it with WD-40 and it's "fixed".  Comes right off.   
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Chris

[Mixerman]

When I clean cable ends I submerge them in Coke! They get shinie bright! It has to be the orignal stuff diet wont work!

[WooferHound]

There is no such thing as Original Coke unless you buy it from Mexico
in the USA, Coke is sweetened with Fruit Syrup now, not sugar.

[Wolvenar]

High fructose corn syrup that is.. Mexican Coke and Pepsi  are both sold locally here 
There is also Pepsi/Mt.Dew Throwback, which is supposed to be the original formula..
 Coke had such a thing out last year here to but seems it is now MIA.

[Mixerman]

If I remember right, the stuff in the 2 liter bottel wouldent cut it, It had to be out of the can!!!

[Bryan1]

Eh I know this is a bit off topic but as Chris mentioned he used WD-40 for getting stubborn nuts undone the stuff I use is a product from Loctite called Freeze and Release. Last weekend I fixed the exhaust leak on my Charade, now as everyone knows trying to undo exhaust nuts generally results in snapping the stud. My mate couldn't believe after I sprayed the nuts, left it for a few minutes then used a spanner and they undid easily. Basically this stuff is liquid nitrogen in a can and I have used it in the past to shrink bearing cups so they would fall into place on a interference fit.

Cheers Bryan

[Isaiah]

Take a scotch bright pad and soak it with the baking soda or your commercial cleaner and clean
 the inside and out of the post connectors with it.
 Stay away from wd 40 on the internal; post connections  as it could cause arching.
 What ever you do never put never seize on battery connections!! It will turn everything black quick.
 If you have the battery out side clean the posts as good as you can be sure the cell caps are on and scrub it down with dish soap and a stool brush , then rinse it with a garden hose. then reassemble.
 Isaiah

[RichHagen]

Chris, I use the WD to prevent rust on the cables of my sewer rodding machines, and hammers, saws and such, but I would not use it on firearms.  It is a mixture of oil and the more volatile stuff evaporates over time and it dries to a shellack like substance that I don't want gumming up the insides of my firearms.  I usually have the stuff in spray form and it tends to get everywhere in use.  If you have something you've sprayed up with it a few times and let dry you can see the coating it leaves.  While good for rust, it would concern me a bit around small precision moving parts.  If its a firearm I need to rely on, I get a purpose made lubricant that will not shellack or harden.

[ChrisOlson]

I've used it on firearms for better than 30 years.  Even my Desert Eagle .44 Mag, which is finicky by design, has never had a problem with it.  I've been out hunting and ended up submerging the pistol under water wading thru a river.  Spray it down with WD-40 until it's soaked when I get back to camp and it functions flawlessly without even disassembling it and never rusted.

WD-40 dissolves powder residue in the gas chamber and ports on the Eagle to clean it without full dis-assembly and it is the ONLY lubricant I have ever found to get a Eagle to function properly with 100% reliability.  Desert Eagles will function OK with factory loads for about 20 rounds and then they start to foul and they'll stovepipe every 10th or so round.  There's endless discussions among gunsmiths and shooters about how hot you should load for the Eagle to get it to function properly.  Use WD-40 on them and they'll shoot factory ammo all day without a problem.  After 10 years and many problems, Magnum Research now recommends it as the only lubricant to use on the Eagle.

WD-40 is good stuff.

I don't care what hydrocarbon based lubricant you use, they all dry out with time when they're applied as a thin film.  That's why, when you take a firearm out of long term storage you clean and lube it before putting it into service.
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Chris