Wire brushing
This small wire brush is
prefect for cleaning gunked up battery acid.
We had a problem earlier in
the week that I'm pretty sure was due to an intermittent connection at
this point which seemed to correct itself the next day when it got
warmer.
At least that's my best guess.
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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The wihte stuff on the terminals is lead sulfate, which is toxic by inhalation, ingestion and skin contact.
You can use a solution of baking soda to clean the terminals. Then apply some petroleum jelly to prevent further corrosion.
If you have a can of regular coke, you can pour it on your terminals and it will clean them. There also good round terminal wire brushes that do a great job and don't throw as much gunk in the air.
And as for the intermitant lack of starting, also look for the ground connection coming from the battery to the frame or some metal portion of the car. I'd never heard of this and even replaced a battery before learning this lesson about the battery cables and shorts.
Roland-You make a good point about inhalation/ingestion hazards when doing this kind of brushing. A simple dust mask and some safety glasses would help to make that operation safer.
gdubya-I quite drinking sodas about the same time we moved to the farm.Thanks for passing on your ground wire experience. That's one area I have neglected and will locate that spot on the frame and start checking it.