Spotlights on a 1950 Ford

[dbdevkc]

We were having problems with the spotlights. 1) very difficult to operate/turn/move them around; and 2) not turning on.

We have the electrical part figured out and will be able to get them to turn on.

As far as freedom of movement goes, there was a lot of old, very sticky grease in the shaft. No problem, can clean off the old grease and regrease. But then in the end by the light with the gears was packed with at least 2 different types of old super tacky grease - more chunk like at this point. With one of the greases that was more like an old wax - smelled like crayons.

What type of grease should be used in there? Note that electrical contact needs to be made through the shaft into that geared area.

Thanks.

[dbdevkc]

Ok, got the thing completely disassembled and spend an hour or two cleaning out the old hardened, gunky grease. Went down the rabbit hole learning more about old grease and how to clean it out than I ever wanted to know. Ended up manually picking out as much as possible, then used acetone to clean up the best we could. Turns out acetone is not the best solvent to do this job (just using diesel would have worked better), but it is what we have on hand. Used white lithium on the gears.

[flatford8]

I think you made a good choice….its light, won’t dry hard and it’ll last for a long time…………Mark

[rotorwrench]

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Try plain old mineral spirits. That stuff even loosens rtv. I use Lubriplate 130AA for door latches and other smaller mechanisms that get wet on occasion. It's NGLI-1 so it's less viscous than most.