Is the parking brake lever on the back of the caliper stainless steel? That would be very bad if it is, I can't put that in my tank without making toxic sludge...

What are you referring to? It takes serious stuff to eat most grades of stainless.

 

Are we talking about a hot tank? The hot tank at my former job used one of Zep's products. I think it was sodium hydroxide based and it handled stainless fine, but the only thing it didn't like was aluminum....If we are taking about a hot tank, they're just stinky and toxic all around.

lol, I love Zep's. No, I have this home thing I do with a battery charger and stainless will make chromium 6 if I have it in the solution... that brake lever is awfully shiny...

What the hell are you doing thats strong enough to pull chromium out of stainless using a battery charger? You didn't get this out of an old US Army Improvised Munitions Handbook did you? I'm curious, entertain me...whats your "home thing"?

Electrolysis. I used it to treat my trailing arms and steering knuckles, before painting with por15 and installing the bearings.

 

If you electrolysis a stainless steel, it will produce chromium 6 in the waste water

 

If you are referring to the greenish gold color, tht is probably a cadmium plating of some sort.

not cad, seems bare and waaay to shiny to be normal ferric stuff, at first I thought it was just burnishing from the cable rubbing on it but... oh hell I wonder if I should have dumped that water now...

Test it with a magnet. If not attracted to the magnet, then it is stainless.

I assumed it was electrolysis, but I was curious about the details so I might do it myself. Are you using an off the shelf product in your tank? Just water? How long do you let it sit?

 

Magnets do usually work, except on 400 series stainless, because it only has %11 Chromium.