Best way to clear grit and sand out of 7 pin plug??

[profdant139]

Just got back from the desert -- seriously dusty conditions. I unplugged my trailer and noticed that there is a lot of junk in the 7 pin plug.

What's the best way to clean it out? I will try the shop vac and an air compressor, but there is some sand stuck way back in there.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions!!

[Gjac]

To answer your question I use a drill that fits inside the hole and just twist it by hand. It will also remove corrosion. That fine sand caused more problem for my tow bar and prevented it from locking. No amount of WD-40 would clean it. I had to disassemble it and was amazed at the amount that got by the seals. That sand/dust also got into some of my baggage compartments passed the seals. There were a lot of dirt roads up in Alaska.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Two components of desert soil can really screw up an electrical connection.

Salt

Alkali

That's why I much prefer a soap like 409 or degreaser like Zep and water. A thorough way is to toss hot water at the connector then blast it with a hose and nozzle. Thank god there aren't any dry Alkali beds around just miserable salt.

[dedmiston]

We've had trips in the Mojave where the winds were so crazy when we set up on arrival that we couldn't do anything but level up, deploy the slides, and run inside to hide. On one trip, we got up the next morning and the wind had blown away the earth beneath two of our six-point leveling jacks and they were just hanging in the air. The entire ground looked different that next morning with so much of the topsoil blown away and nothing but moon rocks all around.

When I first met my wife's family, they had a custom where "nobody is allowed to say 'The W-Word'". Evidently my mother in-law had a bad habit of saying, "This is so nice, and it's not even windy." So they forbade her or anyone else from saying the W-Word.

We carried on the tradition, and everyone who camps with us is now used to saying "it's not even blowing", but they don't say that word. When our kids were young, one of our daughters embraced that message and then named it The Walrus. So now even as adults, our kids say Walrus, as do most of the other families in our camp.

Don't say the dubya word.

[profdant139]

wopachop, you would not believe how sandy everything got, and I mean everything. The whole cargo area of my truck, which is covered with a good-quality A.R.E truck cap, is a mess.

That truck cap has kept out some major rain and snow storms, no problem. But the powdery dust of the Mojave Desert is uniquely invasive and abrasive.

[wopachop]

If your 7 pin plug got that dirty, i wonder what else could use some cleaning?

Glad it worked out. I have to clean out ours every  year or so. Air compressor and electronic spray. Like others mentioned its not a good spot for WD if youre going back out to dusty conditions again.

For me WD40 is good to remove grease off something if i have no other degreaser choice. Or applied to drywall knifes or a hand tool that accidentally got wet. Or the old standup jetski manual sure has you spray that stuff everywhere. It literally says to coat the entire engine. But i only spray it into that hole where i think the stator lives. Oh and the distributor cap of an old vw engine!! (lastly maybe for cologne) 

[BurbMan]

We did a lot of beach camping with the TT and the sand gets everywhere. Rule #1: NO grease, WD40, or other oily lubricants, they become sand magnets and once the sand sticks to the oil/grease, whatever you tried to lube will grind itself to death. I use a teflon "dry lube" spray on the jacks, steps, etc.

You can buy this at the major home centers and hardware stores:



Regarding the 7-way plug, I mounted one of these to the trailer tongue. It was an easy step to unplug from the truck and immediately store the plug here. It keeps the plug off the ground and protects it from water, sand, etc. This keeper is essentially a socket with no contacts. Insert the plug from the bottom, and the spring-loaded door engages the plug and keeps it from falling out, just like when you plug it into the truck.





On the truck camper, there is no place to mount the plug holder so I use one of these plug covers to keep the connector clean while the camper is off the truck. Click pics for links.

[valhalla360]

Bobbo wrote:
An oil as a degreasing agent? Grease is just oil mixed in with a soap to make it firm.

No.

It's a bit more complicated than this but if you break a barrel of crude down, it comes in a variety of components that run from very thin and easily evaporated (ie: naptha) to very thick to the point of being almost rock hard (ie: asphalt)

In between are a wide variety of products of varying viscosity and evaporability.

By mixing a thinner product with a thicker product, it will soften or even liquefy the thicker product. It's technically not allowed but paving crews would often have a bucket of diesel and they would dip their shovels in it occasionally as it would dissolve the asphalt off their tools.

So yes, a petroleum products can be used to degrease. The problem with WD-40 in this application is it doesn't evaporate completely, so the remaining thicker products left after evaporation tend to catch and trap dust and grit.

[Bobbo]

Alan_Hepburn wrote:

wa8yxm wrote:

WD 40 was designed to displace water on Electrical connections (WD=Water Displacement) So a very very good suggestion.

Close - it was actually developed as a rust prevention and degreasing product for the aerospace industry, and used as a coating on the outer skin of the old Atlas missiles. You can read all about it on the WD-40 website

An oil as a degreasing agent? Grease is just oil mixed in with a soap to make it firm.

[Tom_Barb]

I simply hit it with a hose.

[Alan_Hepburn]

wa8yxm wrote:

WD 40 was designed to displace water on Electrical connections (WD=Water Displacement) So a very very good suggestion.

Close - it was actually developed as a rust prevention and degreasing product for the aerospace industry, and used as a coating on the outer skin of the old Atlas missiles. You can read all about it on the WD-40 website

[profdant139]

Well, this was one of those "easier than it seems" projects. First, I fired up the shop vac with a crevice tool. A little dust came out, but there were still grains of sand that were visible, trapped in the "female" prongs of the seven sockets.

Next, I fired up my air compressor with a narrow tipped air blower attachment. Bingo! I was worried that the stream of air would drive the sand grains deeper into the sockets, but nope. Out they flew.

My guess is that the air jet created back pressure within the body of the socket, blowing the grains of sand outward. (And no, none of it got in my eyes.)

Since that was so successful, I checked out the "male" fixture on my truck. It, too, was sandy. A few moments of compressed air, and it was clean as a whistle.

Someone above suggested "why bother cleaning this?" Maybe it's just my ultra-cautious mindset, but my response is that having sand and grit inside an electrical connection can't be a good thing. It'll interfere with the on-the-road performance of the seven pin assembly, and it'll abrade the components.

Plus, to be honest, what else have I got to do? Maintenance on my rig is always more fun than doing chores around the house!! 😉

[goff1256]

Don’t get too carried away with this just wash it when you go to the car wash keep it simple unless you just need something to do

[MEXICOWANDERER]

SPRAY strong soap. Wait overnight then blast with water hose nozzle. Been there don that

[Bill_Satellite]

You can clean with WD40 but as you suggest it would then attract more debris. I like to use WD40 as the cleaner and then use a dry silicon spray to clean out the WD40! You end up with a nice dry clean connection.