De-leaking the battery compartment?

[RF-doyle]

So I followed what I found online about cleaning things out with white vinegar but are there any tricks to get the leaked matter cleaned out from under the spring deep in the battery socket? Everything else cleaned up great but I cannot get completely under and around the spring. Tricks?

 

[dmr]

I've never de-gunked a Yashica, but I had to de-gunk a Mamiya which had the remains of what used to be a battery.

I didn't use vinegar, didn't think of it, but yes, it will tend to neutralize any crud that is basic (alkaline).

I first removed the remains of the battery and the pieces and flakes of solid crud with a dental explorer. A few passes with alcohol on a q-tip cleaned up most of what was left. Then I applied a light coat of Vaseline to the interior of the battery compartment and it did indeed look squeaky-clean. 🙂

For the contact, first I tried some generic store-brand Tarn-X, which will often reduce metallic oxides and other compounds back to their elementary form. No go. I then cleaned it with a nail file and buffed it with some Simichrome and that bullet-shaped polishing pad on the Dremel.

Now, the corrosion had traveled up the contact to the connecting wire. It didn't damage the contact itself, but the copper metal in the first 1/4 inch or so of the wire was dissolved. I carefully cleaned and buffed the contact and replaced the wire with some "re-work wire" which I got from the techies at work.

Hope this helps. 🙂

 

[RF-doyle]

Thanks dmr, that is a help.

As the photo shows, the compartment cleaned up pretty nicely but as far as I can tell, the upper spring is attached and does not come out. I'm just wondering a trick to get the leaked matter out from under the spring or even if it matters. The photo was just taken with my little P&S which couldn't focus to the inside of the compartment, but the bluish area is the battery leakage matter.

 

[dmr]

It looks much cleaner than mine was. From your photo it looks like the issue is mostly cosmetic.

I would just use a pick of some kind (dental explorer, dental scaler if you have one) to scrape off as much of the the blue grode as you can, then blow it out with canned air or maybe swab it with a q-tip and alcohol.

I would scrape or buff up the top of the spring to be sure it makes a good contact with the battery.

Good luck. 🙂

 

[RF-doyle]

scraping it out is a good idea. Thanks.😀

 

[Greyscale]

With that much corrosion in the battery compartment, you might want to check that the negative connection has not corroded away from where it should be connected to the end of the bottom spring. Try removing the bottom plate, removing the two screws that hold the battery compartment, and turn the camera over and see if the battery compartment falls out. There should be no more than a couple of millimeters of slack on the compartment. If it does just fall out, , you will have to fix this by running a new wire through the camera body through the top of the camera and soldering it in place. But you would then be able to soak the entire battery compartment in vinegar for several hours to clean up the rest of the gunk.