breakloose oil specifically for aluminum?

Is there anything better than PB Blaster for Al? I need to go through the electrical panels at the RV park (About 120 of them). The park is wired with direct burial Al wire and I want to disassemble the panels, Paint them, install new fasteners, and retorque all the lugs. The box sheetmetal fasteners are the prime concern, but the lugs should be torqued while I'm in there.

 

Steel and aluminium are friends so you shouldnt have any reaction between metals ....but the steel might be corroded.

I use Wurth Rostoff ice thread loosener, penatration type oil, to reduce friction

. Works good .....perhaps you have a similar local product


https://shoponline.wurthusa.com/wurthusa/servlet/CyberVendor/category/G3408593/catalog/group.jsp/

 

Zep 45 Nc with Vydax and Kano Kroil work well, but shock and heat work best. I've had good luck with PB, especially with heat. On stubborn stuff I'll make up a some automatic transmission fluid 50/50 with acetone and just soak it crap out of it for as long as possible.

 

the absoulute best pentrating oil is automatic transmission oil. I use it straight but diluted as PAR suggests also works well. It works better than PB, Kroil and all the others. I use it all the time, once had a car body part that had a sheared off bolt from being rusted into place, used PB and LPS on it for days, could not get the broken bolt out. I soaked it in ATF overnight, next day I could turn the rusted bolt end by hand and get it out without any tools. Also once got an adjustable steel angle measuring tool like an adjustable protractor that was rusted solid (got in a "free" box at a garage sale). Soaked it for days in LPS and than PB to no avail, I put it in an old bucket of used ATF, next day it moved freely without force.

Once you break the connections free, clean off the corrosion and than used LPS on them to prevent future corrosion. An even better compound if you can find it "Corrosion-X" sold to prevent corrosion in aircraft, it has a mill-spec number. I think you can get it from Aircraft Spruce and Specialty.

You might see if there is some metal contacts that are more compatible with the aluminum wire, some metals are more prone to galvanic corrosion than others. Find which material works best with aluminum and install those contacts.

 

The acetone in my mix helps promote capillary action, which can be handy. I'll suspect brake fluid will do as well a job as ATF.