Electrical contacts cleaning

[Mikerb]

Cant remember seeing anything on here about cleaning the electrical contact points on the bike. I dont know if similar connector plugs are used on other brands but the battery to motor connector on my Levo is magnetic. That is good from the point of view that the connection does not wear but because the contacts are not the insertion type they do not self clean....oxidation is therefore the main potential problem and the eventual cause of a bad connection. Again I do not know if the electronis employ the use of a wetting current to ensure a good connection or not. Regardless seems to me fairly regular cleaning of the contacts with a good electrical contact cleaner is good practise.

 

[Jaygam]

I just used silicone grease to prevent water ingress. No problems to report on shimano thus far.

 

[outerlimits]

I have used dielectric grease on my Levo in the past. Just a very thin smear to keep the corrosion away.

 

[Mikerb]

The battrry lead to motor coonection is sealed with an O ring. It is the O ring that provides some resistance when you make the connection. So the recess on the motor side that the O ring pushes into needs to be clean.....and I smear liquid silicone lube on the O ring. All of that helps ensure no dirt dust etc gets onto the connectors but does nothing to stop oxidation which is a fact of life for electrical contacts exposed to the air. Thats what contact cleaner deals with...as well as general grime.

 

[Jeff McD]

Recently my remote stopped working, would not change assist level, and battery assist would cut in an out unreliably. I thought the remote was defective but it turned out to be 3 tiny 2 mm pieces of rock with some Iron content obviously since they stuck tenaciously to the magnetized plug on the main motor (Not the cover part of the plug closure). They were keeping the closure from making good contact. They would not release with compressed air. Even spraying with electrical contact cleaner would not remove them and I had to get a tweezer to actually pull them off the frame. Even with the flashlight I could only see one of them and only spotted the other two after I ran a Q-tip repeatedly around the rim of the opening on the frame and dislodged the other two down into the bottom of the well whether more more easily visible.
So do a close inspection and make sure you don't have any of these in the future if you have electrical connection problems. I did not even see them because everything is black down there until I looked into the opening with a very bright flashlight and spotted them.

 

[Mikerb]

Recently my remote stopped working, would not change assist level, and battery assist would cut in an out unreliably. I thought the remote was defective but it turned out to be 3 tiny 2 mm pieces of rock with some Iron content obviously since they stuck tenaciously to the magnetized plug on the main motor (Not the cover part of the plug closure). They were keeping the closure from making good contact. They would not release with compressed air. Even spraying with electrical contact cleaner would not remove them and I had to get a tweezer to actually pull them off the frame. Even with the flashlight I could only see one of them and only spotted the other two after I ran a Q-tip repeatedly around the rim of the opening on the frame and dislodged the other two down into the bottom of the well whether more more easily visible.
So do a close inspection and make sure you don't have any of these in the future if you have electrical connection problems. I did not even see them because everything is black down there until I looked into the opening with a very bright flashlight and spotted them.

Yes any poor contact will manifest itself in a variety of ways. As I said in the original post they are touch contacts so not only do they need to be spotlessly clean but the battery connector plug interface also needs to be very clean.