Fixing headlights comination switch?

[TomoHawk]

Don't forget a little dab of grease, or it'll wear out straight away or maybe just break off..

[Murph]

Good idea.... Will do.

[Murph]

It's been about 6 hours now and the epoxy has set. Check out the shape! Pretty damn close, although maybe a tad too tall. If it's a problem then I'll just sand it back. I tried to pull the epoxy away from the plasic, but it has bonded strongly which is great. Now I just hope that it wears well.

[Murph]

I've just reassembled it all and reinstalled it in the car and it all works perfectly. The switch has a really nice action now, with a positive click as it moves from postion to position.

However (there's ALWAYS something!) when I'd installed it back in the car, I realised that for the wipers, there's actually a intermittent position! I'd always assumed there wasn't as the intermittent position hasnever worked. Now I'm kicking myself because I could have fixed it while it was out! *grrrr*

[TomoHawk]

At least now you can relax, knowing you discovered whatever it was thast you forgot to do...

It's worse wondering about what you left out, until you find it.

[Mr Camouflage]

I had the exact same problem with my headlight lug, or tit as you like to call it.

[Mike]

Excellent progress on this!! I love the pictures. This will certainly come in handy for someone else someday.

[Murph]

Glad to be of help!

A few notes:

•Remember how the windscreen washer wire and it's little plastic insulating washer go on. It took me a minute to figure it out as I did take a pic before I took the metal casing off

•Any thickish epoxy should do the trick. Araldite should be fine and would be preferabe as it cures faster. The stuff I used had a 20min working time. Probably about and hour until it started to really thicken up.

[Murph]

Unfortunatly a month and a half down the track I have to report that my little fix didn't last quite as well as I'd hoped.

The expoxy on the end of the "tit" has worn right down despite being well lubed. Not exactly sure what I am going to do now. Maybe try some other epoxies that may be harder wearing.

Actaully it'd be something softer that would do better I'd say. Hmm....anyone have any ideas?

Hmm...maybe I can make a little "cast" and melt some plastic into it, then drill it's inside to the correct size? Would be very fiddly and quite difficult considering the tolerances.

[Mr Camouflage]

If you had access to a metal lathe you could make one out of brass or aluminium. Most high schools have lathes, well they did whin i was in school.

[EScanlon]

Don't know if you can get it in Australia, but JB Weld is a type of epoxy that is harder than your usual resin style epoxy. You could even make a mold off the good one and then make the new one.

2¢

Enrique

[Murph]

Thanks for the suggestions.

I ended up finding another very simple solution, that should last!

I found that your common 4mm bullet plug has almost the perfect profile as well as inner and outer diameters. Just had to carefully cut the plug down to the right length, clean up the edge and it slots in perfectly.

Being metal on metal contact I'd imagine it shouldn't wear much either. My only concern is where the bottom of the metal plug rubs inside the plasic holder, there might be some wear. We'll see.

The photo shows the good original one, the worn down one I had modified with the epoxy, the modified plug and an unmodified plug.