On Wed, 29 Jul 2009 08:34:21 +0100, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

In article , Donwill popple
@diddle .dot wrote:

"Jules" wrote in message
news
On Tue, 28 Jul 2009 23:37:31 +0100, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
Any tips for removing the corrosion as it has to be soldered rather
than crimped as the original plug was. Short of just scraping it off?

Hack it off if there's enough slack.

Sadly, there's not. And experience with this sort of corrosion says it
usually goes quite a way in.

Yes, I usually find that, too. If it's one or two wires I'll usually cut
the damage out and then solder/heatshrink some short runs of
replacement wire in - I'd built up quite a collection of different
wire/stripe colour combinations in the junk box before I moved
overseas

Pain in the butt doing it for big multi-way runs, though.

I've had success with just
scraping before - but I suspect it's nowhere near as mechanically
strong as a 'proper' joint, even if it ends up electrically OK, and
might just be asking for trouble 20 years down the line.

I'll be dead by then. ;-)

Sure, leave your mess for someone else to sort out ;-)

I was hoping someone had a chemical solution.

I'd be interested to know if there is one, too. I suppose in principle
it's no different to removing corrosion from any other metal, with the
bonus that it shouldn't matter if there's pitting left behind as it's not
a cosmetic thing.

Problem is, I assume that the corrosion weakens the wire as well as making
it harder to solder to - so if it goes in a few inches it's just asking
for failure at some point - and any chemical treatment probably won't
reach under the insulation...

cheers

Jules