bulkhead fitting sludge

[J-SQUARED]

been trying to track down some electrical anomalies in the headlights and decided to inspect the bulkhead fitting on firewall. I have always noticed on the outside in the engine compartment that there is a lot of what I assume is grease packed into the connectors. I have assumed this was some sort of grease or RTV someone before me put on it. I decided i needed to inspect the inside to find it was also covered with what looked to be some kind of grease or maybe old Dielectric or something. It is very thick and on most of the terminals. Has anyone seen the same scenario? i was expecting it to be clean and dry on the inside. part of me wants to put it back together and pretend like i never saw it and the other part wants to blast the crap out of it with brake clean and scrub it and re grease it.

What say the experts?!?!

 

[nvrenuf]

The bulkhead plug in my ‘91 had a similar black goo. I have no idea what it is but I’ve read about other people finding it so I’m guessing it’s a factory conductive or anti corrosion product.

 

[Edelbrock]

Dielectric grease. Its non conductive, and keeps water and everything else out.

 

[AuroraGirl]

Dielectric grease. Its non conductive, and keeps water and everything else out.

dielectric grease is not the best grease for this job, but it will work.

 

[bucket]

The gooey stuff pictured is factory-applied.

 

[Grit dog]

dielectric grease is not the best grease for this job, but it will work.

What is?

 

[Matt69olds]

It’s some kind of sealer the factory used to keep water out of the connector. It’s definitely some gooey stuff.

 

[AuroraGirl]

What is?

Electrical connector grease. Dielectric grease is insulating and can assist in certain terminal corrosion(I forget the specific kind)
It’s better than nothing in my opinion
In a connector body with a seal, the place of dielectric grease is the seal itself. Or on a spark plug wire boot but not the metal part contacting the plug

 

[bucket]

Electrical connector grease. Dielectric grease is insulating and can assist in certain terminal corrosion(I forget the specific kind)
It’s better than nothing in my opinion
In a connector body with a seal, the place of dielectric grease is the seal itself. Or on a spark plug wire boot but not the metal part contacting the plug

I've used dielectric grease on trailer plugs for a long time. It's actually very good at fixing poor connections.

 

[AuroraGirl]

I've used dielectric grease on trailer plugs for a long time. It's actually very good at fixing poor connections.

it seals them from the outside

thats why I said its better than nothing
Ive done the same thing

"suboptimal"
I wouldnt open it back up if someone already did it, but if you havent getting the proper stuff would be long term wise.

The connections that really are more at risk of issue are things like micropack 150 type things. Blade terminals like the bulkhead and trailer 7 blade are not so much worry because of the surface area on the terminals is great, and joining them slides into eachother. so its probably displaced mostly from the spots it connects.

but its great for sealing moisture, so not using it would do more damage than using it

 

[Grit dog]

Electrical connector grease. Dielectric grease is insulating and can assist in certain terminal corrosion(I forget the specific kind)
It’s better than nothing in my opinion
In a connector body with a seal, the place of dielectric grease is the seal itself. Or on a spark plug wire boot but not the metal part contacting the plug

Oh ok…..

 

[AuroraGirl]

Oh ok…..

using dielectric over nothing will decrease fretting corrosion
so as I said, not optimal but not at all a problem because of the connector terminals type
If you use it sparingly and not smash into the cavities it will generally help and not hurt much anyway

 

[Daron58]

I’ve used this stuff for years on every electrical component and plug ins alternators starters battery terminals and have yet to ever had any type of problem due to corrosion, use it sparingly just apply it with a q-tip fwiw