I have a rear tranny cover to replace my broken one, however, it's got baked on oil, dirt, and gunky on the inside. I want to clean it 360º and at home instead of driving around, trying to find a place that will clean it, dropping it off, and picking it up later (or the next day). Carb cleaner aerosol works great but it goes quickly and gets expensive. Engine cleaner, like foamy Gunk!, is fine for surface oils and dust but takes some real elbow grease for the thicker stuff on parts.

Obviously, the dish washing machine is out of the question and the g/f gives me the if I clean anything in the stainless steel kitchen sink (but I do a VERY good job of cleaning up after myself). My garage is full so I don't have room for a dedicated, free-standing parts cleaner -- maybe a version w/o legs, with handles on the sides for moving it around would work...?

What do you home mechanics do to clean parts? I don't mind if I have to let the parts soak since it'll be in my garage and I'll have instant access. Just need a quicker, easier way to clean my crap, er, parts! TIA

When I pulled my engine and trans from the assdragger...I used that purple degreaser stuff the FLAPS sells, mix 5 parts water to one part purple and spray it on...agitate with a wire brush and rinse with water....

Works great

The usual disclaimers apply, do this at your own risk.

Gas or Kerosene will dissolve that stuff. Once you cut it with the gas then wash it with purple.

Gas or Kerosene used and washed out on the ground runs the risk of getting yourself busted by the enviro nazis and contaminates the ground...at least the purple stuff is water soluble and less of a toxic issue.

Plus you won't burn yer ass up.....

Thanks for the picture! I'll give it a go. Yeah, I know about gasoline but I'd rather waste that IN my cars than ON them

But you can't beat it for cleaning parts.

Do you guys have these environazis just riding around checking out what people do in their yards?

You really don't use that much. Take a parts cleaning brush and a drain pan. Pour just a little in the bottom and wash your part. Then pour it in the bucket with your recyclable(SP) oil.

Nah, we mostly lean on shovels....my best cases come from neighbors that fink other neighbors off....got a quarter? Call the hazmat guy....

Psssttt I'll tell you a little secret...

I used an old dishwasher (hooked to hot water) at the shop, scrape off the big stuff, 2 big cups of degreaser, toss them in. Poor mans hot tank

Worked surprisingly well, one day the seals shit the bed, probably due to the grease and degreaser, but I had it for at least 2 years of fairly heavy use.
If I find another dishwasher, I'll be usin it again.

Later

Nice! But I'm quite limited on space But an excellent idea...Craig's List, ho!

Exactly. I have old, bored neighbors that have nothing better to do than create drama. I can't wait until they die.

I've found theat the purple stuff works well too, but for stuff that is really caked and baked on, there isn't much you can do that doesn't equire some force. For any cleaner to work, it has to dissolve the material. If the material is smooth and glassy to the point where all the original solvent is baked out, its very very hard to get the cleaner to attack it. One transmission I had simply required that I use a tool to chip away at the baked on gunk. Combine that with the purple stuff and you shold be fine. But it will take a lot of time...

-Tony

Heating oil #1 and a plastic 5 gal bucket make a good soaking tub. You could plug up the holes in that case and just dump in the heating oil and let it soak. i just toss parts in the bucket, or put small pieces in a colander, and let them sit for a day or so, They clean up easy.

Exactly. I have old, bored neighbors that have nothing better to do than create drama. I can't wait until they die.
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I told one neighbor that he better be cremated, otherwise I'll crap on his grave...

I also used my water blaster on the trans....there are some pics someplace...

I use the parts washer at my friends shop, or I drop the stuff at the local transmission place, and they put the parts through there industrial dishwasher (partswasher)

small stuff, a rubbermaid tub, and the purple stuff

FYI - just went to advanced auto parts, and they had a parts washer for $39. It looked alittle taller than a camping stove. I got all excited, and tried to buy it, but the wife was saying something about an upcoming birthday.... There was only one left... I'm making an effort to mention how cool it is every 2 hours or so.

Maybe you could just post her email address and a "few" of your 914 friends could tell how cool it is

Anyway, I've heard of the dishwasher trick too; I imagine that's hard to beat for the home DIY'er, especially if it's got a heating element for the water. And dishwashers are PD cheap at the thrift stores. The nice thing about the purple stuff is that it says "biodegradeable" on the label, so at least you (and your neighbors) can feel good about using it. BUT : some people have reported that it causes pitting on engin/tranny cases, so if you're cleaning something rare/pricey, better be careful.

A couple of years ago several people in a fringy industrial/residential neighborhood near me reported hearing a loud boom. Police found a few manhole covers that weren't where they were supposed to be. Hmmm. Some dude was pouring large amounts of volatile solvents down the drain. They actually took a bunch of samples and were able to track it back to his place. Ouch.

Pressure washer works good. But some of the REAL crud needs REAL, manly goo to clean it. I've used Toluene (the last T in TNT), works the best if you can get it. Acetone (MEK) does too. Just remeber to use a high grade respirator - both are carcingenic. Keep the tailings in a dedicated plastic tub & let it evaporate outdoors - don't let this stuff get anywhere near a spark source!

Better yet, use the Purple Stuff. The tree huggers are probably lurking next door & the fines could be BAD. MHO

I forgot to take a "before" shot but the rear tranny cover was worse than what it's going to replace:
Click to view attachment

Here it is, though, after cleaning:
Click to view attachment

The purple stuff (in above picture) did help loosen things up like the baked on oil globs. I still had to use a scraper to pop the bigger chunks off but then went over the spots with a wire brush and, well, you see the results! It's not spotless all over...a mild abrasive blasting might make it look prettier or a hot tanking but for a little grunting, scraping, and brushing I'm happy at how it looks.

Thanks for the assistence, Teeners!