by John Grady
I worked
a lot on power window switches in the style of 1960-1964 but now had
to get into these from a 300C. It turns out the 1957-59 switches are
nice and are designed electrically better than 60-64 .
They all
suffer from the usual problem; difficult to move the switch lever
enough to get good contact for up or down, or no contact at all. The
60-64 often have burned contacts inside, which leads to partial
connection.
The 60-64
comes apart by prying back with the obvious die casting “ bend
ins ” with diagonal cutters. This often
breaks them but they back can be epoxied back together.
The 57-59
switches defied me on how to open. While it looks like you pry back
the bakelite housing, this attempt will break it immediately. It
turns out there are two recessed U shaped spring clips which are
not obvious to see at first, and then it splits in two down the
middle.
October, 2024
U springs visible at the top |
How to
get the U springs out? I found if you get a box cutter into the split, sharp
edge up, at the end you can slide it up lifting the U slightly, just
enough to get another box cutter under it to lift up and off . Be
careful of the box cutter and be prepared for that U spring to suddenly
fly away.
Once the
switch body is open, expect the same problems as with the 60-64
style. Water gets into the switch and rusts the short springs that
give the switch its action. But even worse, the rod the spring rides
on rusts too. The rod is a tight fit in the bakelite hole and soon it
will not slide. Now the switch lever cannot rock.
In this
picture, we have a switch and a disassembled switch. Notice the contacts are fine
but I have to work on the rod. I scrape the rod to shiny clean,
reassemble with 75 w oil (wont rust again) with oil on spring . Don't
overdo oil as it is not good on contacts. Silicone oil / grease would
be good too.
