Having nothing better to do today, I decided to pull the starter switch out of the Hack....take it apart for apparently the first time ever.
The inside was clean, was able to get the tabs out without breaking one and a good 1/4" plus of shine on the contact areas.
Should have left well enough alone
So I decide to take the copper t-slot bolts out and give them a good dressing and polish. No problem there but...how do the heads line up on reassembly? Round edges going longways to plate dimension...or perpendicular?
The contact frog on the plunger has whisker edge along with some pitting, I don't want to create an internal arc welder first time I use it and would like it to seat best. As to the whisker edge, I tried to grab it with needle nose, too hard. Leave it alone? Or, break out the Dremel ? Any other things I should be aware of?
Picture?
Ok, do the flats on the copper bolts go this way or 90. Degrees? Forget where they were.
Here is the frog as found.
I don't know that it really matters as the flats are only there to hold the stud from turning as you tighten the nuts down.
George,
I just worked on mine three days ago. I put mine as you have yours pictured because that way, the edges of the copper heads are farther away from the top housing, where any misalignment might cause a short.
I had to tack weld mine back togther as 3 of the 4 tabs broke off on reassembly.
Maybe annealing the tabs before reassembly would reduce the risk of cracking?
Roger and Jerry,
Thanks for that heads up...I was able to get the tabs up easy enough...would have probably just mashed them down again...I'll hit them with a torch before re-assembly...
OK so the copper T-slide type bolts work best with the flats as shown in the picture. Got that too...
Now...any help on the bridge 'frog' shown in the second picture? The ends have pitted as shown...not much I can do about them anyway I guess? I was wondering how 'useful' as is...vs. drilling it out, rearranging the leafs, and putting it back together. I may regret doing that due to other surprises, so just wondered about others thoughts on the pits and the end whiskers.
I like the switches with the two screws. I've redone a few of them, and they are totally rebuildable if you have enough of them. I was going to use one on my '25, but even with an extension, it wouldn't go through the seat riser far enough, so I had to use a later one with tabs. Fortunately, I had a good one.
My idea would be to clamp the top so the button is pushed in, giving you more room to work on the bridge. Then clean the ends to be as smooth as you can get them, and add Cali-Lube from Kano labs--it's an anti-arcing, anti-corrosion "goop" for switching relays. I use it in toy train work!