Arc AAA regular maintaince...

[Saaby]

I just completed my first regular maintaince interval on my Arc AAA. This maintaince is recommended once every time your Arc has traveled 3000 to 5000 miles or whenever you feel like it.

Here's what I did:

Took Arc apart, took battery off and O-ring off, set aside.

Proceeded to clean threads on head and body with dishsoap and a toothbrush. Then cleaned exterior with soap sill in brush.

Rinse

Repeated process with toothpaste, it was Aquafresh whitining because that's what was in the bathroom upstairs, I personally use Colgate Total but thought a whitining toothpaste would be more abrasive anyway.

BUT: Before I rinsed I put the head back on and screwed it down and back off a couple of times to make sure I'd worked all the grime out of the threads, well, if there was any.

Cleaned battery contacts with alcohol...

I didn't have a Dremmel handy but I took a Q-Tip, cut it in half, and put it in a common ordinary power drill. Put a little of the toothpaste on the end and polished up the LED/Reflector.

Rinsed everything thuroughly and dried out the indide of the body, threads on the body and head, and the LED/reflector with one of those keyboard cleaner thingies...

Repolished LED/Reflector with dry Q-tip (Details in a moment)

Applied Radioshack Lube Gel with Teflon to threads and then put the head back on and turned it "on" and "off" several times. Took head off, replaced O-Ring and battery, and put head back on.

Proceeded to clean exterior again with dish soap.

Notes:
I recommend using compressed air to dry out the insides and especially the threads where the surface tension of water likes to thrard quick drying, but I do not recommend it for the LED/reflector. Those comressed air things have the same stuff in them that makes your cars A/C work...the air coming out in COLD! It was cold enough to make the water remaining in the reflector part fog up, which made me have to repolish.

Cleaning the exterior is also recommended...but save it for last. I did it towards the beginning but while I was completing the maintence it managed to get dirty again

Questions:
Will the alcohol ruin the foam battery retainer? I am going to send for some more anyway.

Comments:
Working better than new and while it helped the "doesn't come back on" problem, it didn't eliminate it. Guess my Arc is still going to go for a visit to Peter soon.

 

[Darell]

Ryan -

Did you crimp the head. Sounds like a bit of moisture is helping you jump the gap a bit, but there is no substitute for removing the foam retainer and giving it a nice roll crip. I've saved three that way now, in cluding my CPF. Works like a champ everytime... and you can do a better job than they do at the factory.

When I clean mine, I never use soap or water. WD-40 does the trick, and never needs to be "dried off". Even makes the exterior look better, and doesn't hurt anything. It sucks as a lubricant though, so grease is still neede on the o-ring and threads. But WD-40 is an EXCELLENT cleaner of gook.

If these things need to be cleaned every few thousand miles, then I'm several cleanings behind now!

 

[Saaby]

It's a 3.1 so I didn't *think* it needed a roll crimp but when I get my Foam retainers I'll try it. The problem is not a flicker, but is described in great detail here...

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=31;t=000302

 

[Darell]

Yeah, I know. I just replied to that one too.

Your description is a perfect indicator of a needed roll-crimp. Only one of mine ever flickered. The rest pretty much acted like yours. No need to wait for a new retainer. The thing will work perfectly without the retainer (the CMG never had one, after all). The battery may rattle, but that won't kill you. Plus you can usually shove the retainer back in there, at least partially. Yank the thing off of there, and roll that sucker.

You're right. It certainly shouldn't need a crimp... but it does. If you wanted to be really slick, and leave the foam on, you can sneak a small screw driver in under it, and bang a notch into the roll crimp. That works just as well, and I usually do it in ADDITION to the crimp.

 

[Saaby]

But it is safe to assume you put the notch in while you have the foam off, not put the foam back on and then sneak around like a secret agent..?

 

[Darell]

My point is that you can notch it with the foam in place. Assuming you have your secret agent status intact.

 

[Saaby]

Just checking

 

[Wolfen]

Saaby, I have the same problem on my 3.1. Does anybody have the crimp procedure with pics? I did a search and couldn't locate the crimp instructions. Thanks

 

[Saaby]

Try Peters DIY Arc Maintence thread... here

 

[treek13]

Warning Off Topic Digression:

Let's analyze this Arc thread by its postings:
Saaby - 50% of the posts
Darell - 30% of the posts
Others combined - 20%

Conclusions -
1. The King is dead (Darell)! Long live the King (Saaby)!!

2. On this thread at least and probably many more to come - 80% of posts by Darell and Saaby combined

- perhaps they should have their own forum!

Oh well, WB Darell and good luck keeping up with Saaby, Pat

 

[Saaby]

Don't worry, I register for school today. Shall I post my schedule??

 

[Saaby]

Update time:

Be careful when you put it back together! I thought my Arc was all dry and happy but a few days later I've noticed a little problem...there was still water in the foam retainer. The water out here is hard, very hard...well almost but not quite needless to say, the water still in the foam retainer had a little reaction with the metal on the top of the battery and I now have a "ring of rust" on my foam retainer and also on the top of the battery except the nub.

 

[Saaby]

More update...Just did the roll crimp and

split my foam retainer (Rust must've weakened it) but no worries as there should be some more on their way from Perer and co. While I was doing the roll crimp the screwdriver slpit and I almost had another 9V battery bleeding finger edisode but the only fatality was the solder on the PCB, so I redid it. It was a good chance for me so brush up on my soldering skills.

Now, I don't know what kind of solder Peter and co is using but this dark brown plasticish stuff showed up after my failed attempt #1 to rebuild solder, (Like I said...havent done it in awhile, but it's like riding a bike right?) this stuff was all over where the battery is ideally supolst to make contact..well on appempt #2 it was bubling!

Is this flux? I am using rosin core solder...I don't know what kind of solder I have used before, never really thought about it until I got here and read up on solder a bit, but I've never seen this stuff before. I did some welding in shop once (Didn't care much for it but that's another story) and you had to wait for the flux to buble off...which I didn't do, do I need to take my foam ring off and boil the flux/rosin/whatever it is off or am I ok?

Ah, and I did get a few fumes (not many) but I'm not worried as I am in Utah and not CA.

**EDIT**
Duh! Almost forgot...after I got done with the roll crimp, solder, et. all and reassembled I took Darells advice and turned it on and off about 100 times without any problems so I think it's fixed

 

[jtivat]

Yes Saaby it is the rosin, it helps the solder stick.

 

[Saaby]

I think roll crimp 3.0 worked. We'll see.