At 09:03 AM 4/20/2015, Larry Alofs wrote:
>IMO alcohol cleans and dries up the moisture and does not leave any residue
>of its own.  WD40 however, leaves a film of lubricant which will collect
>dust and eventually form a conductive film when it gets damp again.  I find
>alcohol works well in damp weather if applied carefully and wiped off
>completely.  Of course a new set of ignition wires can help a lot.   :-)

Alcohol is miscible with the water and carries it away by making it a
small fraction of the volume present; Path labs use multiple changes
of 190 ETOH with a final one or two of absolute alcohol to dehydrate
tissue prior to saturating it with wax and embedding it in wax blocks
for slicing a few microns thick and staining.  WD40 in smaller
amounts preferentially attaches to many surfaces and shoves the water
out of the way.  I haven't used it for wire drying since it was
reformulated a few years ago, taking out the Stoddard solvent that
was the main component and adding some actual lubricating oil; so I
have no opinion on its relative effectiveness since the change.  I
discovered it by accident looking at MSDSs.

Yours,
David