Electrical connections and dielectric grease

Fast Eddie

VIP MEMBER
Joined
Oct 4, 2013
Messages
20,586
Country flag
Gents,

There have been some interesting posts on here about foam support for relays and fuses, extra cable ties to support things, the use of dielectric grease, etc.

I hope to collect my new CR in time to really go through it before spring. So going through the electrics in a preventative maintenance way, is high on my list of priorities.

I’m quite happy in my abilities to help identify potential sources of mechanical failure of electrics, ie through stress and lack of support etc.

What’s new to me is the whole dielectric grease topic. I have only ever worked on the basis of ensuring connectors a dry and clean and using a squirt WD40.

Now we’re being told to slop grease inside our nice new connectors. This goes against the grain somewhat for this old dog!

Can someone give us a 101 on this topic? The idea of putting grease, an insulator, on nice clean fresh metal contacts is entirely counter intuitive to me!

Do I actually put the stuff inside the connectors, or only on the outside plastic parts, or what?
 
Last edited:
Good to use where there’s exposure to the elements. I use it at work to protect mic lead connectors in high sweat environments. It doesn’t prevent good electrical contact, you can buy conductive grease which I wouldn’t recommend.

Use on the inside to prevent corrosion, wouldn’t bother in the fuse box myself since it’s well sealed.
 
The process of putting the connectors together wipes the grease from the area that makes contact providing a good contact. The rest of the grease remains around the connections protecting it from the elements.
 
OK gents, so we DO slop the grease INSIDE the connectors and on the pins themselves?

Still sounds counter intuitive to me. But as I cannot think of anyway of expelling the air either, I guess I’ve nowt to lose!

Any recommendations on any particular brand, available in the U.K.?
 
Worked good for me for the last 30 years.

Electrical connections and dielectric grease
 
Assuming we are, do you use it in the same way as the others have described?
 
Yes and yes. Any metal electrical connection you don't want to corrode. Battery terminals, wire ends where insulation has been removed, inside crimp connectors, etc., etc. I was first impressed with how it completely stopped the corrosion on my car's battery terminals after an electrical engineer at work recommended it. A dedicated dielectric grease may have additives added that might make it "better" but I've never felt the need to get something other than plain old petroleum jelly.
 
My understanding about di-electric grease is that is is basically a silicone grease. It is neither conductive or resistive so it will have zero affect on the electrical circuit. I use it on spark plug wires and boots. I also use it on multi wire connectors, expecially ones that that deal with milliamps and low voltages. Most sensors fall in that category. It is also good for lubricating the mechanical parts of switches.
When dealing with single wire connections, or non-sensitive wiring I like to use a product like Di-Ox. Di-Ox is also a type of electrical grease but it has some anti corrosive properties. I am not sure how conductive it is so I don’t use it on multi wire connectors to avoid electrical leakage between wires.
If I had to chose one I would go with Dielectric because silicone grease has way more uses than something like Di-Ox.
Pete
 
I've only recently bought and used dielectric grease just as a preventive maintainence about a few months ago. I'm wondering if that had anything to do with all of my relays being lubed enough to back out and cause me to stall. They were nice an firm when I pulled them off to grease and held in there for over three years. Oh well. No big deal.
 
I've only recently bought and used dielectric grease just as a preventive maintainence about a few months ago. I'm wondering if that had anything to do with all of my relays being lubed enough to back out and cause me to stall. They were nice an firm when I pulled them off to grease and held in there for over three years. Oh well. No big deal.
That’s a good point !
 
I first applied dielectric grease back in the early 80's to a new harness I fitted to my B44 Shooting Star, I added the grease to every spade and bullet connector as I swapped the out old one, with the red earth wires burnt to a crisp, for the new one. Still have the bike and it has survived being outside with no cover for 2 of the intervening years and no top ups of grease, the grease is still present when you look at the connectors and I have had no electrical issues in all those years.
 
Gents,

There have been some interesting posts on here about foam support for relays and fuses, extra cable ties to support things, the use of dielectric grease, etc.

I hope to collect my new CR in time to really go through it before spring. So going through the electrics in a preventative maintenance way, is high on my list of priorities.

I’m quite happy in my abilities to help identify potential sources of mechanical failure of electrics, ie through stress and lack of support etc.

What’s new to me is the whole dielectric grease topic. I have only ever worked on the basis of ensuring connectors a dry and clean and using a squirt WD40.

Now we’re being told to slop grease inside our nice new connectors. This goes against the grain somewhat for this old dog!

Can someone give us a 101 on this topic? The idea of putting grease, an insulator, on nice clean fresh metal contacts is entirely counter intuitive to me!

Do I actually put the stuff inside the connectors, or only on the outside plastic parts, or what?
Pretty sure Nigel that ur new Bike won’t need any , as they already put some protective stuff on whilst building the bike , check with dealer or factory, on my recent service I was informed that my ignition wires/coil pack where repacked using the same stuff they use on New assembly !
 
... Do I actually put the stuff inside the connectors, or only on the outside plastic parts, or what?

I'm sorry, Nigel. I still can't believe you are a genuine [modern] Norton aficionado. Thinking back to all your previous posts I am floored. A belated "welcome aboard" is in order!
 
Pretty sure Nigel that ur new Bike won’t need any , as they already put some protective stuff on whilst building the bike , check with dealer or factory, on my recent service I was informed that my ignition wires/coil pack where repacked using the same stuff they use on New assembly !

Well, I hope you’re right there Richard, I’ll obviously be having a close look and it’ll be interesting to see if they do use it. Not many OEMs do as far as I know.
 
Any ol how Nigel , when r u looking to register the bike , 1st of January or 1st of March for the new reg plate ?
 
Any ol how Nigel , when r u looking to register the bike , 1st of January or 1st of March for the new reg plate ?

Not sure yet...

I was originally thinking March.

Then I thought ‘why waste potential riding time’? And decided Jan.

Now, with the weather we have at the moment, I am reminded how bad winter can be, and riding days in Jan / Feb can be very few indeed.

So March doesn’t sound so daft after all...!
 
Back
Top