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What degreaser and new grease for 35 year old plastic?


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I have a 1980 combination headlight and washer switch. The wipers and headlights work great. B...ut to get tail lights I have to turn the switch on for 5 minutes first to warm up, then I have to repeatedly turn the running lights on and off. Then I'm still not certain they stay on when I'm driving. I got it all apart and have cleaned all the blue surrounding plastic parts ok. Now I need to disassemble the combination switch and reassemble it with new grease.

 

I tried full strength Simple Green to get the old sticky grease off without success. Then I tried denatured alcohol on the horn metal ring and it worked nicely, but it took some of the color out of the blue plastic around the edges. Luckily it is out of view.

 

1. I've read up on denatured alcohol and it looks to be safe on most plastics. But I'm spooked to use it on the 35 year old white plastic parts on the combination switch for fear it will dry it out the plastic, then crack, fail, and fall apart. Anybody have any experience R&R'ing a combo light/wiper switch? What did you use to clean it?

 

2. What type grease did you use to reassemble it with?  The info on dialectric grease is overwhelming. Some is for actual switch contacts, other is just for connectors. My head is swimming.

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