Electrolysis for rusty parts....

[tkent02]

I tried it, WOW!

Before:

After:

This took about two hours.

 

[ggreenfield]

Wow very impressive! Is this something you can do yourself? If so, how?

 

[ccoale]

outstanding results. i have had pretty good success with small parts and the bucket method as well.......cc

 

[tkent02]

Wow very impressive! Is this something you can do yourself? If so, how?

Very easy, a little Washing Soda, the hard part was finding that.
Bucket, battery charger, and I used an old piece of steel fencing for an anode.

It is explained pretty well here:
http://650rider.com/Content/pid=6.html

I used the old fence material anode wrapped all the way around the bucket, that way it cleans on all sides at once.

All the rust ends up floating on the top like pond scum.

I see the explanation is gone, here's a layman's version.

Mix a little washing soda in some water, maybe a tablespoon per gallon or so. Carbonate of soda, it's available at swimming pool places also.
Put the part to clean in the water, with a connection to the negative lead on a battery charger. It has to be an old non-automatic charger, an automatic one just shuts off as a bucket of water doesn't have the little bit of voltage it takes to keep an automatic charger charging. A piece of mild steel, with no paint or anything will serve as the sacrificial anode, it gets connected to the positive lead of the charger. Electrons flow from negative to positive, and they take a bit of rust along with them as they go. You can see tiny bubbles moving around, that means it's working. Eventually the bubbles get all rusty, that's a good sign. The rust ends up on the anode, or floating around trapped in the bubbles. After a while the bubbles will slow down or stop, take the anode out and hit it with a grinder to get some clean metal surface to conduct more electricity.
Sometimes the parts get a black coating on them, I think but not sure that will happen a lot less if the water is replaced once in a while when it gets dirty, also using a slow rate on the charger seems to reduce this.

 

[TheCafeKid]

Washing soda, while it took me a damn long while to find it, simply because i was looking in the wrong places, can be found in the laundry detergent aisle at just about any big grocers. I made the mistake of thinking it was something more special than it really is, went around asking people at various places, and was fed nothing short of deer in headlights looks. "We have BAKING soda...:shock:"

 

[mortation]

I got a question, how in the hell did you cam get that rusted in the first place??? lol.

 

[TheCafeKid]

Pardon???:-s

 

[onetoomany]

LOL:lol: thats funny

 

[Fishman]

That is a very good link Tkent02. It's the first explanation that I've read that makes perfect sense. I think I'm going to try it.

 

[TheCafeKid]

Its a great thread, great explaination, and simple as Pah.....Just assure you get your batt charger leads right, or you might end up with a "whatever your anode is made out of" Plated part.

 

[dennis roy]

Um... I beg to differ, i've spent a lot of time in triple digits lol

 

[justmount1]

lmao kent u keep putting these states out there and then someone shows up from that state lmao too funny

 

[PAULYBOY]

It came from Ohio.
No one rides fast enough in Ohio to keep things from rusting.

No, really. He's right! It came from Ohio. Can I give you the rest of the engine? Good boat anchor!

 

[TheCafeKid]

Hey Tom, I am planning to hunt up a 79 850 top end at some point to do this same mod to an extra motor i have, what all do i need? Head jugs, pistons and thats it? Or more?

 

[TheCafeKid]

Oh sweet! I have a spare 750 head that i picked up on fleabay, so i just need to rebuild it. I had originally thought to do a Wiseco kit on it, but after reading a bit, was worried that the boring would be kinda precarious, as you lose a bit of the already pretty thin cylinder walls, from what i read this can lead to overheating. It gets pretty stupid hot around here, so this is something i worry about. Also, im not sure, but wouldnt you actually get a bigger displacement from using the actual 850 jugs and pistons vs the bore kit? i believe the bore kit yeilds 844cc what is the 850 stock size? Also, are the cams from the 79 850 and pre 80 750s the same? I know from Steve telling me that the cam timing of the later 850s were changed a bit, but that would only have to do with the sprockets right?

 

[TheCafeKid]

The 850 cylinder sleeves are thicker, so better for this. Great if your 850 cylinders are not worn, if you need to bore the cylinders I don't think Wiseco has an oversize piston. Not sure about this.




Both Wiseco and stock 850 are 89mm, 844cc or 843cc? Suzuki has 89.5 and 90 mm oversizes available, not sure about Wiseco.



850 cams are the same as a GS1000, give a little broader powerband than the 750. I am going to go with the 750 cams first, then switch them out to see which ones I like better.

Thanks for the info!! I will keep an eye out for what im lookin for. :-D

 

[tkent02]

More fun with rusty stuff...

More fun with rusty stuff...

This GS 550 frame is pretty rusty, mostly in the battery acid spill zone.

The hard part is finding a big enough tub. This one will have to do.

Need a good negative connection on the frame, this goes to the negative lead of the non automatic battery charger:

And a sacrificial annode (rebar) connected to the positive lead:

In it goes, the 2 amp setting is plenty. Time to go watch a football game or sand something for a while.

In a few minutes tiny bubbles begin to float around, proof it's working.
In an hour or so there is a lot of rust in the bubbles, guess where that came from?

This is an hour later, after adding another anode. The cleaning action is line of sight only, the rust only comes off from the side of the frame facing the anode. By putting another anode in the center of the frame, it is taking rust from the whole area at once. You can have as many as you want, even a whole grid of them depending on what you are cleaning. Just connect them all to the positive lead, and ensure they don't touch the part you are cleaning.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the pic's TKent!

I clicked on the 650rider link but it's no longer there, so your pic's are very helpful.

I think I've dealt with all my rusty bits but if I find some more then I might dig out my old charger and see if it still works with this.

 

[tkent02]

Here's another setup, this time cleaning the battery box from the same 550:

 

[raistian77]

Nice pics Kent, been using electrolysis for a long time, works perfect. Just remember to use a non-automatic charger. This works perfect for cleaning fuel tanks also.