I manange an automobile scrapyard where to find pm?

[bigscrap84]

Yes I know the obvious one is the cat but I am talking the harder to obtain stuff. Relays fuse switches etc.

 

[jeneje]

Yes I know the obvious one is the cat but I am talking the harder to obtain stuff. Relays fuse switches etc.

Research is the best way to learn about what is out there, you can start by using the search function on this site. Also do research on car parts.
Ken

 

[Smack]

Any where there is a electrical connection or contacts for electrical current to complete a circuit you have a chance for precious metal plating to be present. Hard to beat pm's for their corrosion resistant properties. Just some things to keep in mind when your taking apart vehicles.

 

[bigscrap84]

I did use the search alot of the threads involve cats copper and aluminum that's the basic stuff. I want the hard to find aquire stuff.

 

[bigscrap84]

Todays haul

 

[skippy]

Bottom middle drawer has brass discs in it with a silver crust on it, no? I found something like this in my miscelaenous pm containing doo dad collection, and I think I may have pulled it out of a microwave, but I'm not sure. Anybody know more about where these things come from?

 

[bigscrap84]

Ya those discs I pulled out of a few old pdas. And calculators I have several hundred of these to take apart still. My yard gets 1000 cars a week so I have nothing but material

 

[niteliteone]

Most oxygen sensors and Hot Wire mass airflow sensors will contain some platinum not to mention gold plated pins and connectors on a lot of the sensitive smog sensors and the onboard computers ( ignition, brakes and airgags)

To name a few places that usually contain PM's.
Tom C.

 

[bigscrap84]

Ya I pull around 800 wiring harnesses a week with my sas scorpion motor puller so I get ecus sensors relays tons a week

 

[Geo]

solenoid switches have contact points (at least the older models do) there's also some silver solder in older starters. the armature will have solder where the windings are fastened to the commutator. this is found more often in starters that have been rebuilt. in a process called "leading" the armature is fluxed and heated and then dipped into a vat of melted solder just past the commutator. it then gets turned on a lathe to remove excess solder.its not much but at a few grams per starter and your scrapping them anyway. remove the armature completely and heat it to beyond the melting point of solder and drop it onto a hard surface with the commutator facing down. the solder will fall out and cool quickly.also the alternator will have a bridge capacitor and a few resistors with some silver in it as well, maybe more so in newer models with the built in voltage regulator.

 

[qst42know]

You have the access perhaps you should be telling us?

One type of mass air flow sensor has a platinum wire, check the wiki.

I have seen spark control module circuit boards that looked like they had potential but I never tested one.

The on board computers being both rugged and expensive would merit some testing.

 

[bigscrap84]

Lol I'm not an expert in everything I'm the first to admit it. The inboard computers come out when I rip the wiring harness/ dash out. I am curious to see the maf wire I will do some major testing tomorrow. While the starter Seems like it would be easy enough to get. The best part is I can take and do whatever I want for testing. So if your curious about something let me know and I will do my best to test it

 

[qst42know]

I would guess anything that has a built in heat sink or requires a thermal compound when installed would be good candidate for testing.

 

[bigscrap84]

Now I gotta find someone who can refine endless amount of material in the nyc / nj area lol

 

[lazersteve]

Bottom middle drawer has brass discs in it with a silver crust on it, no? I found something like this in my miscelaenous pm containing doo dad collection, and I think I may have pulled it out of a microwave, but I'm not sure. Anybody know more about where these things come from?

They look like common piezo speakers/buzzers to me.

Apply an audio signal to the two wires and it should produce sound waves. Very common device used in many consumer electronics.

Steve

 

[bigscrap84]

The little factory amplifiers have some really decent gold fingers in them. Well I wouldn't say fingers because one of them is huge the hot wire maf is too time consuming to figure out if it is or it isn't.

 

[bigscrap84]

And the digital cable / satellite boxes seem like a treasure trove also.

 

[bigscrap84]

Ok so after a few days of prospecting I have found that car radios are good especially ones with the larger buttons. Newer cars mostly obd-2 like 95-96^ the instrument clusters have some really nice boards behind them. The maf wires are too hard to identify and most of the newer lt-1 ls-1 gm mafs sell to the tuner racing scene for much more than whatever platinum would be inside. The air bags kind of scare me I'm not gonna lie lol. Most of the relays and wire connectors have gold plate or flashing on them. Some of the relays appear to be silver inside as well. I'll keep you guys informed.

 

[Geo]

these two boards are from the firing control module from a 1998 ford mustang. the four colored connectors have gold plated pins and there are 6 large flatpacks and a handful of medium to small flatpacks.

 

[trashmaster]

do a search about electric fuel pumps,,,