FWIW when I took my turn signal switch apart to scrape the carbon off of the contacts I bent the small side of the cover out at the corners instead of the tabs to get it apart. My theory is that the cover can be bent more times than the tabs before breakage because it doesn't have to bend as far. There might be a possibility of repair if it did break by soldering two "L" shaped pieces of metal around the two corners where it broke if that were to happen. All of this is just a theory though. The hard part of getting it back together I thought was making sure the ball bearing that goes on the end of the spring was in position after assembly (maybe drill an observation hole?):

Edited April 9, 201311 yr by Mikes Z car

A good way to keep the ball in place while re-assembling is to put a very small dab of Vaseline on the ball. Last time I didn't have a jar at hand so I used some triple antibiotic.

Dielectric grease to hold the ball in place - and only a tiny dab.