Preventing corrosion on battery and phase terminals.

[Adrian_]

I have an issue with corrosion on my battery and motor phase terminals. The way I have my controller mounted, I can't waterproof it very well and can only prevent splashing and large amounts of water. From time to time when I'm doing basic maintenance, I'll take the terminals off and quickly sand them to make sure they are making good contact and not causing too much resistance as I push 12kW+ through them.

I'm wondering if anyone has a long term or permanent solution. I was thinking about covering them in dielectric grease but it's going to be messy when I have to uninstall and reinstall the terminals. I was also thinking about zinc spray coating which is chemical and weather resistant that I use on wrenches and tools to prevent corrosion and rust but I don't know how good it's at passing though current especically large amounts of amps, I can't find anything online regarding zinc spray coating on electric contacts. I have attached some pictures of what I'm talking about. Wondring if anyone else has dealt with this.

 

[A-DamW]

You could try tinning them with solder, some solders may be more resistant to corrosion, plus maybe dielectric grease.
Another option is diy nickel electroplating:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=diy+nickel+electroplating

 

[harrisonpatm]

I was thinking about covering them in dielectric grease but it's going to be messy when I have to uninstall and reinstall the terminals

How often are you moving these around, and how messy do you imagine it being?

I used dielectric grease in a rather moist environment, got stuck in the rain lots of times. When I broke down the moto for the winter, there was basically still an undisturbed layer of the gunk around the controller contact and the lugs. But that's about it. It can always be wiped off and reapplied. Just goes back to my original question, how often do you have them coming off and on?

Another thought, I don't know specifically what controller you have, but maybe you can draw and print a sort of cap to go on top of the terminals. Something tight fitting in TPU can do a lot to keep water off, but it depends on the controller and what the contacts look like.