Hi all,
What is currently the best degreaser out there to use for this purpose? I need to get rid of the varnish-like coating on gearbox internals from a 'box that's been laid up and done nothing but sit there for about 7 years and its oil has degraded, gumming up the works. And I need to rely solely on solvent action as scrubbing the internals would require a strip-down which I wish to avoid if at all poss.
cheers.
Paraffin works well as a degreaser. Caustic soda is extremely powerful. There are also washing soda & washing powder. I dont know which you can and would need to use in this case though.
NT
I've put a few litres of diesel (similar to paraffin) into a gearbox and given it a drive round the block to flush out the crap.
Mate did the same with a Landrover gearbox prior to disassembly and when taken apart it was bright clean and nearly dry (only the slightest oil coating).
I doubt if it will remove the gum the OP was asking about though.
Caustic and other alkalis won't touch synthetic varnishes, which I imagine this would be
I Have Been Told that the best "solvent" for gummed oil is biodiesel, the more bio the better.
This was to remove the gum from letting "bio" chainsaw bar oil sit in the bar for over a year. The "bio" makes it biodegradeable, which is a good thing when a forestry worked spreads a quarts of oil a day in the woods, but causes it to gum the channels and holes when the saw is unused for long times. And the biodiesel does cause some rubber seals to dissolve...
Thomas Prufer
Not sure what solvent you'd then use to remove the paint stripper.
Owain
Carb cleaner might do it. It's probably something like trichloromethane. It did a similar job on my throttle body a few months ago.
+1, the gums and lacquers from degraded oil are difficult to dissolve in the traditional sense, but diesel should penetrate and soften them, and the mechanical action of operating the selector forks and synchro cones should do the rest. I certainly wouldn't use caustic soda in a modern box because it will corrode the aluminium casting.
Cellulose thinners are pretty good for this. You'll need to find a decent car paint supplier. Get the gun cleaning variety - cheaper than that used for paint thinning. Guide price about 12 quid for 5 litres.
But I'm not sure anything will totally shift this sort of thing without brushing etc.
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