One of the minor jobs I did while I had the dash out at the 2023 NEC Resto show was to repair the passenger-side courtesy light switch, which had never worked in my ownership of the car. Although, to give credit where it's due, it was Matt Oxley who actually fixed it!
To open it up, just drill out the two rivets on each side. When dismantled, it looks like this:
There is a metal bar running across the central plastic pin; each end of the bar slides up and down in the hole in each of the metal plates. The spring pushes the plastic pin up, so at the top of the travel the metal bar should contact the ends of the holes in the metal plates, thus connecting them. The bottom ends of the plates protrude out of the switch body, thus forming spade connectors to connect to the wiring loom.
According to Matt, who has fixed many, these normally just need a clean-up of the metal surfaces to remove corrosion. That didn't work on mine. It seems that, when the plastic pin reached the end of its travel, the bar was only touching one of the plates. Matt's fix was to make the bar a slightly loose fit in the pin, so it could rock slightly, ensuring good connection with both the metal plates.
To re-assemble, I used a couple of M2.5 bolts and nyloc nuts instead of the rivets there originally - I couldn't find a rivet the right size, and besides, there's a good chance that pulling the rivet closed would just crack the housing (Matt was visibly twitching at the very thought of me trying it!).
Courtesy Light Switch
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- rbgosling
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Courtesy Light Switch
"Farmer" Richard
1990 Lotus Excel SE (Lilith)
2022 MG MG5 EV (not due to be a classic for quite a few years...)
2011 Nissan Leaf (Ragly - EV pioneer, must be due to be a classic one day)
1990 Lotus Excel SE (Lilith)
2022 MG MG5 EV (not due to be a classic for quite a few years...)
2011 Nissan Leaf (Ragly - EV pioneer, must be due to be a classic one day)
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Re: Courtesy Light Switch
Thanks for this. At some point in the distant future, when time allows, I'll search for this thread & have a go at mine - neither of which works.
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Re: Courtesy Light Switch
If you are gentle when disassembling you can re-use the original rivet on reassembly.
- rbgosling
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- Model: Lotus Excel SE
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Re: Courtesy Light Switch
How do you get the rivet out in one piece to be able to re-use it? I drilled mine out, not much left of it!
"Farmer" Richard
1990 Lotus Excel SE (Lilith)
2022 MG MG5 EV (not due to be a classic for quite a few years...)
2011 Nissan Leaf (Ragly - EV pioneer, must be due to be a classic one day)
1990 Lotus Excel SE (Lilith)
2022 MG MG5 EV (not due to be a classic for quite a few years...)
2011 Nissan Leaf (Ragly - EV pioneer, must be due to be a classic one day)
-
- Regular Poster
- Posts: 101
- Joined: Mon Aug 28, 2017 04:35
- Model: Excel SE
- Colour: Ice Blue
- Year: 1986
- Location: East Yorkshire
Re: Courtesy Light Switch
Tapped it through with a punch, it pulls the rivet tail back in allowing it to be reformed on re-assembly. Can't remember if I put a small pilot hole in it first.