Headlight Switch

Verrell @Unobtainum is "The Man" on this subject and more. Hundreds of posts on this. Everyone who owns an older Ferrari has had this problem..or will.. It's not if, but when. If you contact him now, you will not lose the 5 years of life that you will otherwise lose.^*$&*ing with this. If you let him help you with this, you will love life once again. Jacques

 

can you please give me that e-mail address again ? i think there might have been a typo.

 

The spring with the ball on top go in a hole in the side of the contact holder inside the switch. The twist knob then slides on over the ball.

Line up the twist knob in the 'off' position, match the groove inside it with the ball. hold the ball down with your thumb & slip the knob over it. The knob should operate properly, & smoothly click into the on & off position. If not, you've probably got the wrong groove.

NOTE:
I'm away traveling with very limited internet access until 14 Sept. I'll try to respond to any replies to this post, but it may not happen till 14 or 15 Sept. I will not be able to process & ship any orders until after 14 Sept. Regards, Verell

 

thank you so much kind sir...... i will try it. hopefully i can wrap my head around it and if so, hopefully there is no damage or defect to the switch or other parts. but first i have to get the ball out of the tiny hole in switch, doh !

 

the ball fell into the hole and it won't come out. i tried to improvise and the spring went flying off and it disappeared..... so now i have a lost spring and the ball is stuck inside the hole.

sheeese.

 

I can hardly bear to read any more; my light switch is waiting for me with the same problems! Last time I 'repaired' it with glue, it worked perfectly - backwards. I didn't dare take it back to bits again, but this time it has a particularly sloppy feel to it! any chance of a photo?

 

Been there more than once(don't ask).

I've had good luck getting balls out with a small magnetic pickup tool, think I got it at sears. Like a telescoping antenna for a small radio with about a 3/16" OD magnet on the end.

If that fails, get a really small (about 1/32" or 5/64" ) drill bit, drill a hole thru the back side & use a piece of stiff springy wire to push the ball out.

I bought some small drill bits used for cleaning out the tips of welding torches that are about the right size. Basicly the smaller the hole the better, but you need a matching size piece of stiff wire. Piano wire is available from hobby shops & works well. They should have small drill bits also.

You can get replacement springs from the local TrueValue hdw store. Find a size that just fits into the hole. It's OK if it's OD is fairly loose. The spring needs to be pretty stiff, look for one with fairly heavy coil wires. Correct length is about 1 turn of the spring sticking out of the hole. If it's too long, cut it to length with a pair of dykes. The cut end is best inserted into the hole 1st, that way the end that's made square with the spring's axix presses uniformly on the ball.