Ron,
I'm trying to find something that will help a Lucas made windshield wiper
switch perform better. This rotary switch seems to have a tendency to arc,
and oxidize the contacts. I've cleaned everything with fine sandpaper, but
can still see the arcing. Eventually, this will cause the switch to fail
again. "(Where are all those electrical engineers when you need them!)!"
Tom
Message text written by INTERNET:tebomr@cadvision.com
>Tom:
(Where are all those electrical engineers when you need them!)
I have always been curious about this too, since my understanding of the
word "dielectric" is that it is non-conductive, since that is what the
material used to separate the two conductor halves of a condenser is
called. However, when I questioned using it on low voltage batteries (in
one
of my past incarnations as a railway signal maintainer), I was told that it
was non-conductive, but the mechanical forces of the connection were
sufficient to punch through the film of grease, and avoid any major voltage
drop. Also, it is non- conductive to avoid any leakage of the terminal
voltage to ground through the grease residue.
If this is true, then this may not work well in a switch (contact pressure
is usually pretty low and you may get a high voltage drop due to increased
resistance -no short)
There is a type of conductive grease that we used to use on relay contacts
that were subject to wear and corrosion, but I have no idea what it is
called. (I believe model railroad guys used to bum small amounts to use on
their outdoor tracks, so you might try them).
This is all I know, and maybe those engineer guys can correct my mistakes!
Ron Tebo
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