Good points, Mark. Better to go easy on the contacts at first.


"Mark" wrote in message
h.net...
In article
,
says...
An easy thing to do is to clean the
battery contacts with some light abrasive (fingernail file or emery
cloth).

I suggest extreme caution using this method, and using this
method only when corrosion or foreign matter is clearly
visible.

The use of any sort of abrasive may result in the removal of
the plating from the battery contacts. Once the plating is
gone, the pot metal underneath does a Very poor job of
conducting. The only fix is to put a layer of solder on the
pot metal, and gently file It down to a flat surface.

Cleaning terminals that don't show significant crud can be
performed with an electronics cleaner or alcohol and a
cotton swab or rag, or perhaps the eraser of a #2 pencil,
which does have a light abrasive quality to it, but would
take serious effort to remove the plating.

--
Mark