OK, now take that old relay, get a piece of bond copy paper and some pure
isopropyl (the 99% stuff) alcohol, tear/cut a strip of the bond paper about
a quarter of an inch wide, soak the first two inches of the paper in the
alcohol, and run the paper between EACH of the contacts of the old relay,
holding pressure on the top and bottom contact just enough so that the paper
doesn't tear.

You will find as the contacts leave the alcohol part of the paper a strip of
black "gunk" down the dry part of the paper. Keep running the paper through
these contacts until the paper no longer has a black stripe on it -- and
then go to the next set of contacts. Don't forget to do BOTH sets of
contacts on a pole -- the upper and lower both get equally dirty.

Now do the NEXT set of contacts and so on. You now have a perfectly clean
relay for the next time the new one honks up.

(BTW, this trick works for switches, relays, and anywhere else you have a
relatively low current set of contacts.)

Do NOT use a file or a "relay contact cleaner" strip. These will peel any
precious metal plating off in the first swipe.

Jim


"three-eight-hotel" wrote in message
oups.com...
Received a new relay on Wednesday, plugged it into the audio panel and
slid the audio panel back into the stack this morning.