Rebuilt my combination switch today

[bloxman]

Evening everyone!

Thought I'd like to share what a great Z day I had.

Went to work when nobody was in the shop and took the combination switch apart and got my turn signals working again. Took some photos (like maybe ten to fifteen) close up with a good quality digital.

Is their any place specific I should post these and the info I have garnered?

Thought perhaps folks might be interested. I would have been interested in a step by step with photos , they were a Ba$#@%& , starting from scratch.

I've had 'em apart about three times now to get everything working. Probably know all I'm ever gonna about what goes on inside there.

Thoughts, recomendations ?

I'm not trying to blow my own horn (har!), honestly

Bloxman

[Zak's Z]

Ya, I'm definetly interested and I'm sure I've seen several posts in the past where folks have been talking about faulty switches. You could post the pics in your gallery, or add them to this post. It would be nice if you included a step-by -step with the pics. That would come in handy for anyone trying to fix theirs maybe.

Ifd you took the time to fix a part, document it, and photograph it then by all means...blow your own horn!

Zak

[xray]

Dooood...PLEASE post your pics and your experiences with this! It can easily be made into a tech article by one of the mods, and will do the whole Z community a HUGE favor since so many of us have issues that can be traced to the degradation of the combo switch.

I'm excited to see what you've been doing with it.

Steve

PS: It isn't blowing your horn, it's sharing. Keep it up!

[BD240Z]

Yep, it would certainly help me out. This way I won't have to damage three of them before I finally figure it out:stupid: . I'll be installing mine pretty soon and would like to go through it before I do.

[Alex 240Z]

Definitely Interested !!!!!!

[BillD]

If you post an article and pictures, I may finally be able to make a legal right turn! Please do.

[bloxman]

O.K. so I number them in a sensible manner unfortunately I can only do it ten at a time so.. Check next link

I may need some help in The wording for the step by step.

Step 1 remove the screws located on bottom of combination switch cover

(don't actually have a photo of this ) I din't actually have a bottom half of the cover.

Remove the top half of cover (lift up and pull towards you)

Step 2 examine all connecters below steering column . You could just take them apart if "nobody" has ever "fixed" them before. mine are apparently stock and there is no way you could hook them back together wrong (zzzt!)

Step 3 Undo all the connecters

Step 4 Undo two phillip head screws on left side of combination switch (I recomend undoing bottom first but suit your self. support comb switch after bottom screw is removed first...so it doesn't fall off the steering column when top screw comes out.

Step 5 take switch to your workplace. you will need small phillips screwdriver , offset needle nose pliers , sand paper or emory cloth , a really small flat blade screwdriver (headlight dimmer switch portion), can of contact cleaner spray , some wd 40.

step 6 disconnect black wire coupling the headlight switch from the turn signal switch

Step 7 remove two srews holding turnsignal sitch to turn signal combination switch assembly. pull up gently to seperate switch from assembly.

Step 8 pry metal tabs (using offset needle nose pliers), up so as to free the guts from metal shell. Pull gently on wires (yes the wires) to remove brown board looking thing wires are soldered to from the metal shell. you should see a set of points (kinda looks like a teeter totter on the back side of the brown board where the wires are soldered. and the metal shell has a sping and a ball bearing. The ball bearing sits on top of the spring. The spring sits in a little cylindrical receiver (hole).

Step 9 sand both sides of both contacts on the points.

Step 10 clean the ball

Step 11 clean the spring

step 12 very carefully stretch the spring a little bit (do not bust it)

Step 13 put spring back in whole

Step 14 put ball bearing back on spring

Step15 while supporting Metal shell with spring and ball bearing in a vertical manner, push beautifully cleaned teeter totter points thing back inside metal shell.

Step 16 while holding the shell and the teeter totter together and not releasing tension (so as to let ball bearing fall inside) bend the three metal tabs back into position.

Step 17 reinstall using two little phillips screw you removed

Step 18 Check for continuity (with a digital multimeter) set to "sing" ,sorry I cannot explain this any better ,but if you touch the two multi meter probes together the "sing".

18 a put turn signal switch in neutral position (neither right nor left turn)

Touch one multimeter probe to the middle soldered wire (mine is green)

touch other probe to wite wire with red stripe. no noise Good!

Now touch the white with a black stripe no noise? good!

now manipulate the turn signal to a left turn replace probe to middle wire and touch one of the other wires , Something had better sing. Repeat for right turn signal position.

next installment (maybe later tonight or tommorrow morning) the headlight dip switch.

additional photos in next thread

[bloxman]

Addition photos as promised. Gotta go its sunday suppossed to be family time.

Later

[hls30guru]

Many thanks for the write up and photos. What were your symptoms? In my case, when the t/s is engaged after the brake lights are on, the 2nd filament of the brake light bulbs goes out and the remaining filament flashes, but dimly. My z doesn't get driven much, so I'm guessing corroded contacts.

[MikeW]

You might consider making a tech article from this. Here's one I did a while back:

http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17688

[straitsix]

and might fail on a dark winding road. One night a police officer let me drive home with my hazards on --I guess the screwdriver modification impressed him. Presently I think there is another way, though it is more a "racer" solution than restoration. I just want my headlamp/running light circuit out of these tired old switches... The trick is simply a three wire code, and my experiment is not quite working yet. Any wizards out there?

[Zs-ondabrain]

And just remember Guys, when My headlight and parking light harness's are installed, the arcing between the contacts is severely minimized and switches last a lot longer.

Here's a proposition for ALL 240Z owners. If you send me your combo and T/S switches, I will rebuild them to the best of my abilities. I've done it plenty of times before and know what I'm doing.

If you have extra parts you'd like to donate to the cause, feel free to send them in the same box. The more spare switch parts I have the better I can build your switches. Springs depress over time, the ball bearings get flat spots, the teeter plates get tracks in them and warp over time because of heat and stress.

I've built over 10 sets (combo and T/S switches) and have not had to deal with ANY failures so far. I can't tell you how much the 10 sets get used but I haven't heard anything but praise. So if you're intersted in my service, Please contact me with your specific details and what you'd like done and we'll figure out a decent price.

But for now, we'll say........

1) you pay to ship them to me

2) I am charging $35 to rebuild both switches as a pair

and $5 for return shipping unless you want another method of shipping.

3) I will offer U.S.P.S. (2-3 day) shipping to get them back to you ASAP unless you choose an alternate shipping method.

4) if you would like more than one set rebuilt for you, please send an additional $30 per set. (you save $5 per additional set)

5) I can also offer a discount or free shipping to those who send me a decent amount of spare switch parts.

The more non-returnable spare parts I am sent, the more choices I have to pick the best parts to rebuild from.

Let me know what ya think here (on this thread) and contact me with any other questions you have at wolfin32z@yahoo.com

Dave.