Disassemble A2 or L1 Switch

[Quickbeam]

How the heck do you get these things apart without breaking them??? The search function on the board is useless for finding anything....

I got the rubber boot retainer and the boot off, but now there is a small mushroom type plastic cap that won't budge but obviously must come off. Any help would be appreciated.

Doug P.

 

[funder]

I dissambled two, for my two pieces, I just pull hard then it will depart from another component.

Before this, I use boiling water to heat them.

 

[DM51]

I'm not sure but I think there was something in Leukos's thread about this. I'll try to find the link.

Edit: I looked in Leukos's_thread, but I couldn't see anything there about dismantling the tailcap. Sorry.

 

[MorpheusT1]

What a coincidence,

I broke one a couple of weeks ago,trying to do the same thing.
My mushroom broke clean off when i applied some hulk power to it..lol.

Heating it prior is probably a good idea.,.



Benny

 

[skalomax]

The search function on the board is useless for finding anything....

Agreed! :mecry:

 

[Quickbeam]

I gave up and will just have to accept the fact that I guess I can't get it apart.

The plastic mushroom thing is on a thin stalk that is tightly inserted into a plastic cylinder (know this because I've seen a picture of an apart switch somewhere...). I don't see how to heat the thing non-destructively. I just wanted to get some deoxit in there and clean the threads so I used some precision instruments and did it while in one piece.

Thanks for the replies!

 

[mahoney]

I've had some success heating flashlight parts to loosen locktite, etc. by putting the part in a ziplock bag, squeezing out the air, and submerging the part in a cup of "boiling" water. A few minutes does the trick and the part ends up just a little too hot to handle but without melting.

 

[greenLED]

I recall js mentioning you gotta break the tailcap to get it apart (in his first A2 dissertation).

 

[McGizmo]

I took a bunch of these apart a few years back when I was doing L1-PR-T mods. I broke a couple initially until I decided to always heat the switch at 175 F in the electric furnace first and then I used a "forked" pry blade to lift the button as straight out as possible. Ever since SF went to some new thread locking goo that can be essentially a weld, I have avoided trying to take any SF component apart! :green:

 

[leukos]

As the green one said, js posted pics of a disassembled A2 tailcap in his A2 magnum opus (towards the bottom of his first post): http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=107943

 

[RCatR]

Mine came right out; must be up to the luck of the draw? I pulled on the switch assembly main guts and let the mushroom press against the aluminum though