Hi,
My 2a/3 diesel ignition switch (Lucas 128SA) is playing up - anc. and starter both work (position 1 and 3, although position 3 is sometimes a little dodgy, only cranks when the switch is in a very specific spot) yet my glowplugs do no (position 2). Considering it will cost around $60-$80 to get a genuine Lucas switch to Australia, I figured I didn't have much to lose in stripping and rebuilding it - as it turns out, they're a very simple mechanism (although I'm still having the same issue post rebuild... bummer).
figured I'd make a post here as I can find zero other posts about fixing these things (or in my case, no fixing)
Like all sprung switches, when you pry them open, there are nasty little springs that try to spring away, thankfully I managed to trap all mine before they ran away.
You can see how crusty those connectors are.
In my switch there were two balls and 5 springs, the two larger ones go in the two center holes with the balls on top, the smaller ones are spaced around the outside.
With the springs and balls in their proper place, the next step is to clean and replace the copper contact plate, bumps facing upwards (the bumps line up with the smaller springs). [in the next photo the whole mechanism has been rotated 90 degrees anticlockwise].
You can see how those balls fit in here.
Also, note how buggered two of those contact 'bumps' are, these correspond to the starter and glowplug contacts (the worse one is glowplugs), due to the amount of current running through these guys, I'd guess this wear is a culmination of both physical and galvanic corrosion.
This is where my issue is, as I wanted to see if cleaning it up would be enough to fix it, I didn't touch these 'bumps' at this stage.
Cleaned up the mating face with the terminals, you can also see the corresponding wear here.
All buttoned up, and... it's still broken.
My next step will be to take it apart again and see if I can do something about those crappy contact bumps, maybe a bit of solder or similar. When I do so (if I do), I'll update this thread.
Anyway, that's that for the moment.
Luca
My 2a/3 diesel ignition switch (Lucas 128SA) is playing up - anc. and starter both work (position 1 and 3, although position 3 is sometimes a little dodgy, only cranks when the switch is in a very specific spot) yet my glowplugs do no (position 2). Considering it will cost around $60-$80 to get a genuine Lucas switch to Australia, I figured I didn't have much to lose in stripping and rebuilding it - as it turns out, they're a very simple mechanism (although I'm still having the same issue post rebuild... bummer).
figured I'd make a post here as I can find zero other posts about fixing these things (or in my case, no fixing)
Like all sprung switches, when you pry them open, there are nasty little springs that try to spring away, thankfully I managed to trap all mine before they ran away.
You can see how crusty those connectors are.
In my switch there were two balls and 5 springs, the two larger ones go in the two center holes with the balls on top, the smaller ones are spaced around the outside.
With the springs and balls in their proper place, the next step is to clean and replace the copper contact plate, bumps facing upwards (the bumps line up with the smaller springs). [in the next photo the whole mechanism has been rotated 90 degrees anticlockwise].
You can see how those balls fit in here.
Also, note how buggered two of those contact 'bumps' are, these correspond to the starter and glowplug contacts (the worse one is glowplugs), due to the amount of current running through these guys, I'd guess this wear is a culmination of both physical and galvanic corrosion.
This is where my issue is, as I wanted to see if cleaning it up would be enough to fix it, I didn't touch these 'bumps' at this stage.
Cleaned up the mating face with the terminals, you can also see the corresponding wear here.
All buttoned up, and... it's still broken.
My next step will be to take it apart again and see if I can do something about those crappy contact bumps, maybe a bit of solder or similar. When I do so (if I do), I'll update this thread.
Anyway, that's that for the moment.
Luca
