I am a firm believer in PB Blaster. The stuff works miracles.
The issue I came across recently was a wiring corrosion issue caused by having a ground on my 400 watt amplifier having a ground in the engine bay. It caused a lot of corrosion issues but i was able to fix them.
The issue that i ran into was:
- Corrosion on the negative terminal
- Corrosion on the negative cable
- Corrosion on the wires that go to the fuel pump
How I was able to fix it was the following…
Tools: Dremel, sandpaper, dielectric compound, 10mm bolt (steel preferably), 10mm nut for the bolt, PB blaster, voltage tester/meter (digital is preferred but use whatever you want).
The issue with the design of these cables is that the little bolt on the negative terminal cable will often corrode, and as the connection gets loose, corrosion builds up inbetween the 2 clices of the terminal cable. This means one half of the negative wire gets great current and amps, the other gets none, or hardly any.
The way you fix it is to either hack off the bolt with a dremel using a cutting wheel or drill bit, or if the bolt is not rounded off by this point you can use a 10mm wrench to take off the bolt and nut.
Separate the two halves of the cable. You’ll now see that exposed in the middle of the 2 slices is more than likely a bunch of crap, corrosion, etc. Using the dremel and a sand bit, take the majority of it off with the dremel. A wire wheel bit works well too. Then using the sandpaper, do the rest by hand to make sure it’s SMOOTH.
Wire wheel the inside of the negative terminal so it’s a nice bare connection.
Now, with the new 10mm bolt and nut, attach both slices back together. I prefer NOT to reuse old nuts/bolts as any corrosion on them is just another good reason to have more issues later. With both attached, connect your negative back to the terminal. Get out your tester and make sure that both battery terminals themselves are at leave 12.4V testing. Now move the negative testing prod to the negative cable end, make sure it shows 12.4V. Move that down to the second slice of the cable and make sure that it also tests 12.4V, if it does not, remove the bolt again, make sure the middle of the slices are making good connection and use dielectric compound if necessary, reconnect and try again.
You can also use PB Blaster on any corrosion you see that is thick or thin, spraying it down before you start sanding with the bit will a) ensure that some of it gets eaten away prior to sanding and b) will wet it down a bit so it’s not getting corrosion in the air that you are breathing in.