[Mac VP]

The degreasing process is going to vary according to the level of grease buildup on the parts and the amount of precleaning you do. Many of the transmission parts we want to clean are heavily coated with an old buildup of gear oil that has often congealed or even hardened to a degree. With extra time in the ultrasonic cleaner, the part will eventually clean up. However, the downside of this is that (aside from the extra time involved) you will contaminate your cleaning solution faster. We will “preclean” the nastier parts a bit before they go into the unit. This means a combination of things……wiping the part down with old paper towels (hey, we get our money’s worth on our shop towels)….or a quick run across the wire wheel on the bench grinder. Anything to quickly get the worst of the crud off the parts. The other thing that helps is to run the parts in the cleaner basket for about 10 minutes, then remove the parts that need a bit more cleanup and scrub them with a kitchen scrub brush before returning them to the unit for another round (or even a third time if needed). When the machine has finished we pull the basket out, place it on a drip surface, and then rinse each part in clean water to remove the soap. Lastly, the wet parts are blown off with compressed air. Usually a final run of the part across the wire wheel will give you a part that looks almost like new. Something like a carburetor body cannot be treated to the wheel but there are other products available to deal with those and other delicate parts. If our transmission parts will be going on the shelf for stock, we may spray a light oil on the item to prevent flash rusting. Some parts might sit for months and may get packed in sealed plastic bags.

Sometimes we’ll clean NOS parts in the ultrasonic cleaner just to remove the heavy buildup of the old cosmoline. I don’t do that often as that stuff just means I’ll have to change the cleaning solution sooner.

The ultrasonic cleaner doesn’t really do anything about rust. You need other products and processes to deal with that.

Also, don’t leave your parts in the cleaner for extended periods of time (like overnight). Some metals will discolor or etch slightly due to the chemical reaction to the degreaser soap. Also stay away from using anything flammable or seriously corrosive as a cleaning solution. Simply Green is really just soap with a color tint and fragrance. It’s somewhat pleasant smelling as the unit operates.