Disassembling the steering column switches

You cannot push the pins down through the switch housing as the center portions of the pins have a larger diameter and the ends are stepped down with grooves for the e-clips. You must remove the e-clips, the metal plate that supports the two pins and then slide the levers off of the pins.

Use a rag to catch the detent balls and springs from the ends of the levers to keep them from flying across the room. There are also springs that hold the contact plates against the contacts on the housing. Take photos and note the position and shape of all of the contact plates before you take the switch apart.

The headlight switch will have two wires going to the rotating barrel switch in its end. You
will need to unsolder the black ground wire and either cut the green wire and later reconnect it, or remove the connector from the end of the green wire and pull it from the wiring sheath in order to completely remove the headlight stalk.

Note that there are also two loose plastic pins in the housing under the headlight switch (for high beam flash function) and wiper switch (for windshield washer pump function).
Getting the switch apart is the easy part, putting it back together is the fun part.

There are only two places that I would recommend for a proper repair of the stalks:
Unobtainium Supply Co.—HOME and
O.D.D Parts - Home

I have had good experiences with the services of both of these companies.

 

Send me eMAIL & I'll send you stalk removal instructions.

 

Well, here is my take. I did the same thing and fixed it myself. If I had to do it all again, I would have Verell fix it permanently. It's touchy and very difficult to get enough strength at the base when you try to repair on your own.

 

Verell, in my experimentation with my repair, I ended up using a much lighter spring and am very happy with it. Have you given this any thought in your repairs? Just the stiffness of the stock spring can create problems. I actually like it switching positions much easier

 

I try to match the OEM feel, so either reuse the OEM spring, or use a spring as close to OEM as possible. The replacement springs I use are in fact slightly weaker than the OEM just because I haven't been able to find an exact match.

I've been repairing switches since 2003 & have never had a detent spring related problem.

However, if a customer requested a lighter spring I'd be happy to install one.