Is Your Electrical Maintenance Doing the Job?
It’s a thankless and time-consuming job, but basic electrical maintenance requires a high level of discipline and the willingness to follow procedure. Photos: Jim Park
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It’s a thankless and time-consuming job, but basic electrical maintenance requires a high level of discipline and the willingness to follow procedure. Photos: Jim Park
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Most electrical maintenance isn’t rocket science — but let’s not confuse basic electrical maintenance with electronic troubleshooting, which truly is a science.
The idea is to keep the electrons flowing to where they are needed in the appropriate voltages and current. That means doing everything humanly possible to prevent restrictions to current flow, such as not allowing corrosion to eat away at a wire or a connector. Corroded wires do not conduct electricity very well at all, and that limits current flow to the component, such as an electric actuator on a turbocharger or the shifter servos in an automated manual transmission.
“I have seen AMTs pulled and overhauled for erratic shifting when it was actually a low-voltage problem,” says Darry Stuart, fleet maintenance consultant and frequent moderator at the Fleet Talk and Fleet Forum sessions at ATA’s Technology & Maintenance Council meetings. “That’s an expensive mistake.”
Basic electrical maintenance done right requires disciplined techs following proper procedures. Stuart says it’s easy to take shortcuts, and since most techs don’t really like doing battery maintenance, you have to require them to do the work properly.
“Whether or not to disconnect the cables, clean the connectors and load test the batteries should not be left to the technician’s discretion,” Stuart says. “That work has to be done at each and every PM. No ifs, ands or buts.”
Cleaning the terminal posts and the cable connectors, along with inspecting the cables for corrosion and wicking, has to be done right or you’re wasting your time.
However, Stuart says, somewhat controversially, that dielectric grease and anti-corrosion compounds should not be used on battery terminals.
“You can lose two volts right at the terminal posts just due to …Read the rest of this story
