Having trouble with your electrical system flaking out? Lights not very bright? Go to the local Wal-Mart, K-mart or hardware store (if you still have a real hardware store in your community). What you're looking for is a place that has sporting goods, general hardware, household cleaning supplies, and cosmetics or first-aid stuff. 1) Go to Sporting Goods. In the section with the gun cleaning supplies, get a .22 caliber brass bristle bore-cleaning brush. (If you've never seen one, it looks like a "bottle brush" in miniature, with brass bristles instead of nylon, and a small threaded section on the end opposite the bristles. You also led a deprived childhood.)

2) Go to General Hardware. In the section with the cabinet hardware, you should find some kind of small round knob, that attaches to the cabinet with a screw. Odds are you'll find one where the screw is about the same size as the threaded part of the .22 caliber bore brush. (You DO see where this is going, right?)

3) [Optional, but handy.] Go to Household Cleaning Supplies. Pick up a bottle of a product called Tarn-X (black plastic bottle, silver lettering). It takes tarnish (a fancy name for corrosion off) of silver, brass and copper.

4) [Also optional, but handy.] Go to cosmetics. Get some "ear cleaning swabs" (Q-tips or equivalent).

5) Attach the brush to the knob (if the thread doesn't match up, you may need to epoxy it in there). You now have a handy tool for cleaning out the inside of Lucar connectors (those little black rubber cylinders, flat cylinders, or triangular or square clusters of cylinders that appear periodically in your wiring harness). Pull the wires out of each end of the connector (after marking things so you know how they go together), and ram the brush through a few times. Reconnect. Voila! Brighter lights! (Well, on that circuit anyway.) It is possible that the connector will crack or break. In that case, it desperately needed to be replaced.

6) Other copper connectors can be cleaned with the Tarn-X and the Q-tips. Don't use it on aluminum, however. You may have to break out some fine Wet-or-Dri (600 grit) for really stubborn stuff. The Tarn-X is great where there is oxidation in places not easily reached or bare copper wires. Drip it on, let it wick through, follow up with a bit of water and dry thoroughly.