Column Switch for GTSi

Tee, the guys over at GT know a lot about these cars. I would see if they could rebuild it. That part was not the best to begin with - I'm glad that mine still works but I might be having the same problem soon so keep us filled in on what happens.

 

Verell is the resident expert on this board for fixing the switch assembly, you may want to do a search and contact him. He reproduces some of the parts as well.

 

He actually recasts all plastic parts, in a strenghthened design and cleans and refurbs contacts and wiring..

Unobtainium Supply!

That's our Verell!

I'd go that route.......dunno if he has built up a shelf inventory at this point or not....

 

You might see if a switch from a late 70s Lancia would work. They look and operate very much the same as a Ferrari - they have the same rotating switch. The Lancia parts are also not available new but used parts are easy and cheap to come by.

 

There are two varients of the headlight twist knob mechanism, & the change-over happened somewhere during the injected run.

The older style has contacts that wrap around each other & are pressed together by the knob. They are very reliable. Other than tarnished contacts, and tarnish/corrosion on the rivits holding the wire to the contact which is fixed by careful soldering, about the only failures are either the plastic contact holder breaking, or the contacts getting overheated & melting themselves & contact holder body. These latter failures require casting a new contact holder body & sometimes even making new contacts.

The newer switch has V-shaped springy contacts that are separated by a blade inside the knob. They are quite a bit less reliable than the older design. The most common problem is bad solder joints, next most common is the blade breaking off of the knob.

Put a large plastic bag over the headlight stalk, there's a spring loaded ball inside inside that makes the knob click into position & when released it takes off like a BB shot never to be seen again...

Carefully pull the knob straight out while holding the shaft so you don't put stress on the rest of the switch. A good firm pull will pop the knob off of the ring around the shaft.

Carefully slide the knob off, watching for the spring to try to shoot the little ball out like a BB (hence the plastic bag).

With the knob off, you can easily see what's wrong. Good chance you can fix it yourself.

If something's broken that you can't repair, click on my name & email me.

I have molds & have been repairing these switches and similar ones used on earlier ferraris for many years. I also have forming dies to make new contacts.

A lot of shops & distributors from all over the world send switches to me, along with many fchat members.

I've been documenting some of my more challenging/interesting repairs here:

http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=21548

Some specifics of my switch service is posted here:
http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=45899

For more info, you can search for threads I've posted with the key words 'column' or 'headlight' and 'switch'.

 

I have just had my headlight switch fail this week, and managed to fix it myself which i am quite pleased about...

The turning part (as opposed to the up/ down part) of the switch operation wasnt working. It would turn the lights on and then off again, and you woud have to hold it halfway for the lights to stay on.

I read Verell's tips and it was easy to get the switch apart. I used a plastic bag to prevent the ball bearing going AWOL, but more about that later.

The fault was a broken solder on the underside contact. If i held the wire to the contact, the switch worked fine.

Mine is the QV with the later switch (the v-shaped contact with a blade that seperates the contacts).

I really battled to solder it back on, a) because I have very limited soldering experience from 20 + years ago as a kid, and b) because I was trying to solder on the underside of the contact, and the solder kept dripping off when molten. So I was careful to put doen lots of towels to prevent solder landing on the leather / carpet.

I then thought it would be easier to remove the whole stalk to solder outside the car, but have no idea how to do this? (any ideas?) I removed the steering wheel but there was no obvious way to get to the column stalks.

So eventually I persisted and got the solder to stick.

Then I wanted to put it all together.

Problem, no spring! I dont remember seeing a spring when I dismantled the thing, so I popped the ball bearing into the shaft and it promptly dropped down the shaft out of sight.

I couldnt get the ****** thing out again, I tried a magnet, but no use..

I tried reassembling the switch but without the spring-loaded ball bearing the switch worked, but the mechanism was too loose and would probably turn itself on or off every time you went over a bump.

So I applied some lateral thinking, which is often the way to go with these cars. I left the old ball bearing at the bottom of the shaft, took a new spring (which I got from a cheap ball point pen, and cut in half), and put that down the shaft, on top of the old ball bearing. Then I topped it off with another 4mm diameter ball bearing.

I put the switch back together - and voila! - it works just as well as when Enzo built it originally.

Dave.

 

Thanks Dave and Verell. Dave, that is what just happened to my 308 QV. The lights only go up if I turn the stick half way between on and off. I thought it was the fuse or relay at first, but it looks like it is the stalk. I am going to check it out closer to see if I want to venture with trying to fix it or have the Ferrari Dealer fix it the next time I am there. In the meantime, it appears to hold (haven't driven it with the lights on and this problem yet) so I might be able to put it in half way position until it's fixed.

 

Dave, I had a similar thing happen to me when fixing the rotating switch. I too placed the "BB" into the hole prematurely. Couldn't get it out sp I placed the spring on top plus another ball bearing. Works great! I did however pull the harness out to work on it. Less prone to accidents inside the car and way more comfortable working space.
Verell was the best with guidance throughout the process.

Herb