Bl00dy Rain II

[daibevan]

Early last week I was working on a leak in my bulkhead as in a previous post. I had the cover of the front SAM off for access. I popped inside and we had a tremendous cloudburst. I rushed out & covered up the SAM which had a good soaking. I dried it thoroughly with an old towel. Went for a drive, hoping that the engine heat would finish the job. Side mirrors went in by themselves & wouldn't come out. Parked up and got to work with hair dryer. Mirrors started working again. All good. At dusk all lights came on. Couldn't get them off no matter what I did. Disconnected battery & had another good go with the hairdryer. Next morning reconnected & everything working. Some random error messages (over the next few days got an enormous range of different ones). All day car performed fine. Next morning I woke to the fan racing. turned on & off, no joy, short drive, stopped, fan off. Left car, fan back on.engine on, revved, turned off, fan off. Car running fine, still lots of random messages. Horn going off when ignition turned on. At dusk all lights came on again. Engine off & on, lights behaving.
Next day all well except EPS light on. turned system on & off twice, engine off & on, message disappeared. All well ? Now over a week and all well. Didn't post before because.........

Did consider having a go with contact cleaner, but now think I should leave well alone.

 

[Blobcat]

I’d be getting some contact cleaner in there to stop any corrosion.

 

[mercmancdi]

I also would be inclined to use good electrical contact cleaner But at a time you can leave the car for a day or so without touching it ,to let it evaporate naturally.

 

[LostKiwi]

If you use switch cleaner (as opposed to contact cleaner you should be fine to just do it.
Contact cleaner can be conductive while wet, switch cleaner isn't.
Switch cleaner often leaves a thin oily film as well.

 

[Botus]

ACF50

think WD40 on steroids and two lines of coke

 

[daibevan]

Thanks boys, What would you do? Perhaps pull all fuses and relays and give it a good spray on the top? I would be loath to dismantle it in case I bu--er it up. Leaning towards either switch cleaner or ACF50 as I could use this on all sorts of things.

Would you just spay over the top, or spray down all of the fuse slots?
Is it easy to lift the SAM out without disconnecting it to spray underneath the board, or would just a liberal spraying where you can reach do?
I hope to keep her running for a long time yet, so want to ensure I don't get any related SAM problems down the line if I can avoid them.

 

[Botus]

ACF50 is ok on electrics.... I sprayed it all over the amp circuit board in the back of my car, inside the reversing camera and on all multiplug connectors before I pop them together

 

[davemercedes]

Wow. Things are so very different today from (my) old days... With my first Ford 100E the only thing I had to learn was how to get at and set the gap on points and spark plugs.!

 

[LostKiwi]

One thing... Do not spray WD40 on connectors with silicone seals - they can swell and not go back together!

 

[daibevan]

Wow. Things are so very different today from (my) old days... With my first Ford 100E the only thing I had to learn was how to get at and set the gap on points and spark plugs.!

I know. I used to carry a spare HT lead, spark plug, set of points, condenser, fan belt, water, black tape & wire. All you needed to get back home in almost any event.

 

[mercmancdi]

I had an old ford and it used to stop regularly in a wet night , I carried a little tin of petrol lighter fluid and used to do the leads and inside the distributor cap and dry off. thinking back I done this for 2 yrs despite fitting new leads and cap , it was just so open to puddles and water spray.

 

[daibevan]

Didn't you just love old Fords. I had a MkIV Cortina with the dreaded variable venturi carb. To start it you had to remove the air filter and dribble petrol into the top of the carb. Eventually fitted a Webber carb and all was well.

 

[mercmancdi]

Old fords. I used to know a guy owned a breakers yard and I gave him a hand now and then , I remember when he took in a cortina with a nicer dash than mine I used to swap them over. No worries then about mls. Lol. And even if back bearing were bad in mine I used to switch the whole axle with one out of his yard. Lol. And my mark 2 escort ended up with so many patch’s the boot floor was all fibreglass.
Electrics was a few wires here and there , no big looms

 

[LostKiwi]

I was always a BL man back in the day. I ran around in a highly tuned 1275 Cooper S for ages. Started out on twin SUs and moved onto a 45 DCOE Weber. Back then Weber's had a tendency to drip neat petrol onto the exhaust manifold when you switched off. Something to do with the isolating gasket and Thackeray washers used for mounting the carburettor allowing movement and a slight leak as a result. For some reason we just accepted it as normal! I shudder to think now about best petrol dripping onto red hot steel exhausts!!!
Being a Mini my travel kit was points, an HT lead, fan belt (not that it was ever going to be easy to change!) and a big can of CRC water dispersion spray (that distributor regularly got soaked).

 

[mercmancdi]

And the carbs used to drain of petrol and you had to churn starter if they sat for a while to get the fuel lifted again to start up.

 

[daibevan]

Well my ACF50 arrived and There was a gap in the rain, so I gave the SAM a good dousing. £12 for peace of mind is a good buy & I still have most of the can left. She is running as sweet as a nut now. I must just remember if I start throwing strange codes in future it could be some corrosion on the SAM.