There are two grades of reproduction headlight switches. There is the cheaper one that is made about the same as the one you were talking about and then there is one that is a pretty good reproduction of the original switch. The later one is about your only choice for a replacement and yes, I suppose there might be a lemon in the bunch once in a while but I've heard very little bad feed back about the better reproduction light switch.
As far as rebuilding the original light switch, I've put a lot of time in on that to see if it was practical, it's not. Almost all of them will have to have the phenolic board replaced, which means that new contacts have to be made also and often the screw terminals are bad and need to be reproduced. The light dimmer resistor is very often damaged because they are originally potted in a high temperature ceramic potting compound that has flaked off. The coil is attached with copper rivets that 9 time out of 10 are corroded, which is why the dash lights don't work or flicker or are dim.
You still haven't gotten into the inside yet. The contact block and or springs are often broken and are very time consuming and difficult to recreate, the contacts are usually worn and would need to be remade, which is why your head lights either don't work or are intermittent.
So..........if you have a lot of time on your hands and access to a milling machine, exotic high temp cements, if you can find copper eyelets and the ability to set them with out cracking the ceramic rheostat frame, have some silicon bronze to make contacts with, then go ahead and rebuild your light switch. Or, spend $49.95 on a new switch and be on the road a half hour after UPS delivers it.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL
