Spridget Tech Talk (MG Midget & Austin-Healey Sprite)
I am trying deperately to get out my fan, hazard and light switches.
How is it done?
I don't want to break them.
If I try to pry them from the front with two screwdrivers...it feels like it will break. They're too tight to push from the rear ( and difficult to get at.
The switches are tough to get out. There is a black plastic bezel that holds the switch from the back. The bezel has tabs that have to be depressed to allow the switch to be pulled out. Look at this page from the Vicky Brit catalog to get an idea of how they work - parts 25 & 27 are the bezels for the headlight and fan switcch.
http://www.victoriabritish.com/icatalog/sm/full.aspx?Page=128
Rick
Thanks for that.
Can't really see much in that parts catalogue though.....too small.
Any tabs at the back seem impossible to get at.
Can they be pried from the front, or is that a break waiting to happen.
There's no way to get at side tabs on the hazard switch
If you pry them from the front you will break the bezel and possibly the trim ring of the switch itself. You have to release the bezel tabs from the back. I'm sure the switches were installed at the factory before the dash was installed. :(
Rick
amishindy published an article on how to do this. I spent hours trying to figure this out. I found his article and had my fan switch out in 5 minutes. 1974 midget. If you search forum for fan I think the article wil come up that has his link in it
Bob Gilfert
You don't say what model this is, but early switches have 2 plastic tabs, top and bottom that hold them to the bezel, have to look and see if they can be reached from behind. The bezel is held in place with a metal spring clip, but I think that the bezel will need to be removed before un-latching this.
DO NOT PRY on this, unless you already have a new set!
Will follow up later, if you don't have a ready answer.
Mike Dooley
It's a 73 Midget.....it's the larger rocker switches.
Aren't the tabs that need pushing in..on the side?
The rocker has to be removed from the outer bezel before you can take the switch out. The tabs are accessed from the back, and are on the top and bottom of the switch. Here is an article explaining it.
http://www.spridgetguru.com/TA0011.html
-Chris
Thanks for that Chris.
Unfortunately the article isn't formated right or something...pictures are covering the important bit :-(
Sounds like though....that I don't touch the bezel....but try and squeeze the top and/or the bottom of the back of the switch to pop it out.
Looks like it. If squeezing it doesn't work, a small screwdriver depressing the tabs one at a time probably will.
Once you get the rocker out, the metal spring clip should come off, and the bezel will come out.
Chris is right; tabs on top and bottom of switch itself. You'll need to push these in and work the switch out a little at the time, top then bottom. Might need to use a screwdriver to push in the tab, or a channel lock plier to depress the tabs if possible.
Patience.
Good luck.
M
Hi, I wrote the article. Seems like someone already suggested it. What browser were you usng? maybe I can fix the formatting problem.
I am unable to test on IE8 But i did try simplifying the formatting. How does it look now?
Looks better....
...but there is a big button at the bottom " spridget guro" that covers the text
Odd, the only buttons that are supposed to be down there are navigation buttons, a back a forward and a home. orry for the inconvenience. The full text is as follows,
"Although Lucas has been said by some to be the “Prince Of Darkness”, the rocker switches produced by that company for everything from headlights to heaters to hazard lights and everything in between are actually generally well made and best of all easily serviced by the average mechanic. The modern replacements are not made the same way, and in general are inferior in design, fit, and finish. Lets take a look at the headlamp switch.
At first, removing switches from the dash may seem like a challenging ordeal. Haynes manuals do not say one word on the subject, and the parts manuals do little to help you visualize just how they are held in place. In fact the switch itself is held in place by a chromed plastic bezel. It simply snaps into place. This bezel in turn is held in place by a wire clip. The wire clip cannot be removed until the switch is removed from the bezel.
All you have to do is gently press down on the top and bottom of the switch with something hard like a screwdriver, while pushing it out. You can even do the top first and then the bottom or vice versa. The only difficult thing about this is that there is limited space behind the switch (its packed with wires, gages brackets etc). I wont say its easy, but I will say it could be worse.
Once its out, its important to note just exactly how the wires connect to the switch. On the back there are four terminals. The top of the switch has some red/green wires connecting to it that go to the side marker lights, and some blue wires that go to the headlights, parking lights, and tail lights. The bottom two terminals are internally connected to each other so it doesn’t matter which of these connects to the brown wire (which is unswitched power from the positive battery terminal).
The switch itself comes apart easily. The black rocker simply snaps onto the base. To remove it just gently squeeze on the sides of the switch and lift it off its base. Be careful not to lose the any parts. In all there are 5 parts, the rocker, the base, a coil spring, a ball bearing, and an internal rocker.
Essentially it works by pressing one or both copper tongs against their contacts on the inside. Sometimes these can get a bit corroded so just squirt the inside with some aerosol contact cleaner. In the USA you can get this at any radio shack. Its also useful for many other things so its well worth having in your arsenal. One other thing that can go wrong is that the internal rocker can wear against the copper tongs and not depress them far enough. On mine it looked like it wore enough that it heated up the copper enough to slightly melt the plastic internal rocker. To remedy this I bent the copper tongs slightly with a screwdriver. Another way these can fail is the contacts themselves which are simply rivets that hold the terminals on as well as make the electrical connection. This can be caused by plastic melting enough to loosen them. I haven’t yet seen one that was loosened by vibration or mechanical wear and tear. If a terminal is loose there really isn’t anything that can be done to save it. Otherwise just do what you can to clean the unit and if you like you can lubricate it with electrical contact grease. I also recommend tightening the female spade terminals very carefully with a pair of pliers and cleaning the contacts with the contact cleaner. These can and do corrode over time. "
I was hoping to get at this today.
Unfortunately it's -32 today. I have a heater in the shop....but not good enough to warm my cockles today.
Plastic ( especially old British plastic ) gets very brittle in the cold.
Will have to wait.
Thanks for posting the text.
After following your directions on disassembly and cleaning my turn indicators are working correctly again... Thanks Seth.
On another note: Your articles read well in FireFox but in IE the next page graphic at bottom covers part of the text.