The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay The AD Head Light Switch Born Again Saga!

Okey Dokey, I been way to busy working on this one but I finally finished it! I was having trouble with the lights being intermittent on my 1950, 3600. So, I decided it was time to dig into the GM head light switches and see if they could be rebuilt. The first one I chose had the contact board warped pretty badly, was very rough in fact it was almost impossible to pull the knob out and failed a continuity check. The dimmer section was totally in operable also, passing no current at all. Most of the switch was rusted, i..e., frame, screws, wire washers, lugs.
This pretty much tells the story;
http://community.webshots.com/album/555161678EhIoCb?start=288
The new contact boards I made from 1/8” Garolite CE phenolic. The new copper contacts I made from 1/8” solid copper round head rivets. I made a die to reform the heads in the bench press. I duplicated the original contact design by making 120° flat heads with 1/32” thick heads at .220” in diameter. This was the design of the original copper contacts. One of the wire lugs was bad, thread was stripped and was moving around and touching the lug next to it. So I had to make a new one complete with the 1/16” dimple on the bottom side to hold it in position, another die set.
All in all it should work as good as the original switch when new and I see no reason that it won’t last another 58 years. I’ll bet that the reproduction ones from across the pond will be long gone when this one is still serving its master! Now all I have to do is figure out a way to hang around till I’m 123 years old and see it that holds true!!! I wonder if there will still be gasoline in 2066?
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Ps. Don’t throw your old light switch carcasses away, send them to me! I’ll buy them.

Great work. Your restoration skills and your attention to detail amaze me. Thanks for sharing.

That's why I had to quit work Tex, I was costing the boss more money than I was making for him!
Tks
Denny G

Denny,

How do you even know HOW to come up with "1/8" Garolite CE Phenolic"?!!! I don't even know what that IS, much less how to get it, cut it, shape it, pierce it, mount it, etc. etc. etc.

You're moving to the top of my "guys who make me feel inadequate" list!!!

Phenomenal job. I need to learn your patience and persistence.

-Michael

When you say "don't throw them away, I'll buy them.", are you willing to do this work for others that have an old switch but would rather have it rebuilt over replacing it with a repop?

That's incredible work. I'm with Mikestem. In which isle of the local Ace do you start looking for Garolite CE Phenolic?

Now Michael, it's just called old age, unfortunately experience comes with old age. When ya get to be an old timer and don't have a job to go to any more then you to will be doin stuff like this to keep busy.
Hey Red, ya gotta start surfin' McMaster Carr's catalog. just about any thing you might need to build things, well at least 80% of what you need.
No, I'm not gonna start taking in one of a kind jobs and then have someone calling me every other day wanting to know where there radio, switch, etc., is and why I haven't got it finished.
If I can accumulate enough carcasses like a few dozen to make a short production run of replacement parts practical, then I could offer some sort of exchange. that way I could spend an evening just doing one operation on a few dozen pieces and cut way down on the time.
In the future I'm planning on re-plating the parts also. Just this week I was in the process of setting up a zinc/cad plating line. But here again it's not worth just doing one piece. I need to do a whole batch of parts to make restoration of the plating practical.
But no, I'm not going to do one at a time.

I have the same thing in mind for the heater toggles If I can fine enough cores. Cores are a problem, seems most people would rather throw them away when they put the repop in rather than recycle them, must be the throw-away mentality that is so prevalent with today’s generation.

Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Denny ,
Ya do very fine work !....Congrats !

Phase II
These light switches are taking on the feel of a Chinese puzzle, like, I figured out one more piece of it. Got a cadaver that was sent to me by one of our members after he replaced it with a new one. Besides the dimmer rheostat coil being broken it was jammed up and you could not pull the knob to the on position. Once I got inside I found that the bottom slot of the contact sliding block that contains the detent was broken away. This had the detent wedged side ways and prevented the block from sliding.
The only solution was to replace the Bakelite sliding block. Since I have been unsuccessful this winter at acquiring cores I had no spare parts to replace it with. The only solution was to machine a new block. So for those diehard restorers amongst you I put up a few pics of the new parts in this phase. http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2056581810098611668LghfZE

The one last part that I just can’t get around is the bimetal thermal cut out. I can’t find that material to make that part anywhere and I’ve been looking all winter for a source. If anyone knows a supplier/manufacturer of bimetal thermal material in this country please let me know.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Denny, I've taken apart those cheapo woodstove thermometers to get at the bimetal before, when I was making a knockoff of a Lionel railroad signal block with thermal train delay. They contain a pretty good size coil of thick bimetal that you can bend to your specification, although you will need to calibrate the circuit breaker you just made out of it somehow. If you want to do a functional replacement maybe you could just use one of the Buss thermal circuit breakers mounted to the frame.

Thanks J. but I'm looking for a supplier of this type of material, I think I found one but as usual they supply OEM and probably don't have anything to do with a small operator like me.
Not looking for simply functionality that’s the easy way out, I’m attempting to restore the original switches just as they were supplied from Delco-Remy. If you’ve seen any of my postings on the light switches you would have seen that I’ve been able to duplicate almost all of the parts so far. The bimetal strips are the only remaining parts that I haven’t been able to duplicate.
The later light switches had an additional fuse holder for the stoplights after the thermal cut out. Some of the cut outs have been bypassed with inline fuse holders by do-it-your selfers.
I will take a look at the wood stove store here in town and see if they have anything like your talking about. I would think that it would not be heavy enough for my need. And yes, I’m going to run a load thru the switch to calibrate the cut out at 40amps.
Thanks anyway for the suggestions, I appreciate your taking the time to answer.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Denny, I have found when needing some small amount of something that a large producer sells, if I just walk in and talk to one of the front office gals she will move me to someone else, a salesman or a big shot in the company. The big shot will, after hearing my sob story ( the reason for your search is critical to your success) they will either give the stuff to me, sell it to me, or tell me where I can get the stuff. As a scoutmaster it was usually something for the boys and most people will help out for a good cause. Your cause is an old antique truck (one like his granddaddy drove) and so sentimentality will (may) win the day for you. That should work for your retread rubber project as well. Good Luck.

Yep, I know where your coming from Jim. I ran into that today at the NAPA auto parts store. I stopped in to pickup one of those NAPA universal Temp gauges and ended up explainting to all three of the counter men how they worked. None of them knew anything about ether, vapor pressure, capalary or bourdon tubes but they were real intersted. Then when I told them that it was to repair the origninal temp head in the 1950 truck that was out front they got their coats and all headed out to look it over. Turns out one of the guys was the owner and had a '51, 3600 in high school and I thought for a minute he was gonna just give me the gauge to help save an original part. In the end he did charge me for it but I made some good contacts and they will know me next time I stop by.
My problem with the bimetal strip supplier is they are Swiss and I think they only have offices here in the States and non here in the Chicago area.
I think I did locate a source for the raw rubber though.
Gotta hit the sack, night all!
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

I got some free gasket material from a local window shop for my 58. The lady at the front desk called to some guy in back who knew just what I wanted after I explained it. He said they had some laying around but didn't use it much anymore except for the occasional hard core restoration of a classic car. He then went in back and found a remnant, explained how I should do the job, and sent me on my way. It was good for them as well, because when I got a rock chip in the windsheild of my daily driver, guess who I went to for the repair without a second thought.