Corrosion at trailer harness plug

[PhilR]

Rewired the trailer because the lights were being flaky. Plugged it in to test before heat shrinking the connectors and still flaky. Throw a meter on the car end, and not getting good signal. Turns out there was some corrosion where the harness connects to the car. And because it’s me, I managed to pull a loose wire from the connector. Argh.

I’m ordering a new harness, but any ideas on why I’m getting corrosion?

 

[Bob N]

When I lived in western Washington I got corrosion on trailer connections all the time. My best guess was from salts in the air. I solved the problem by applying dielectric paste to the pins. Renew the paste once a year and no problems.

 

[mcswny]

dielectric paste to the pins

This 100%. I’ve done a fair amount of electrical on motorcycles and they all get packed with dialectic grease

 

[rattlesnake]

Dielectric grease and cover it over when not in use. I’ll get a female plug end and connect the male end to the female when in storage and also load it up with grease.

 

[PhilR]

Got it all back together, slathered with dielectric, and works great. Thanks for the tips.