Opening Surefire heads can be tricky. I was doing a mod last night and decided to photograph some of the steps to help out others who are wanting to do an emitter or driver swap.
Heat is the first important ingredient in opening these though little heads. Many people have used hair dryers others have used hot water and a plastic bag. I have taken to using fire. This can be risky because you can over heat these gems and destroy every thing inside. Regardless of what heat source you use, strap wrenches will make this process 107 times easier. Some oven mitts or good gloves will also help because your natural reaction is to grab the object when you are working with it. This does not go over so well when you just finished cooking it .
I gently used a vice-grips to hang onto the head,
GENTLY so as not to upset the threads. I found that medium heat for about 30 seconds works, 10 or so inches above the flame. Rotating it like a marshmallow so as to not heat it un-evenly.
Once you have heated the module to your liking immediately put it in the strap wrenches and begin to unscrew it. It helps to lay them out in the correct direction so that you are turning them in the correct direction .
The head is composed of 3 separate pieces. The bottom piece is what threads onto the light body. The middle is the light engine/driver and the top is the optic and housing. The last can be further disassembled but was not in this tutorial. If any part of this assembly does not simply unscrew, carefully reheat
Once you have taken all 3 of these apart you will need to clean the thread locker off of all the threaded surfaces. I use a dental pick to follow the groves in this process as it works quite well. Take care not to stab your fingers A needle nose pliers are also helpful for removing the light engine from the base.
Once you have separated all 3 components you can begin the driver and or LED swap. I did not have an upgraded emitter to replace the stock LED (looks like a P4) so I left it in place. It is held down by tiny little torques screws, T4 or T5 if I recall correctly. The driver board is connected to the LED via 2 solid wires that can be de soldered carefully by heating and unfolding the leads off the board. It also helps if you pull gently on the driver while heating the leads one side at a time. Once you have separated the two you will need to remove the driver from the base of the of the head. There are two points on the board where it is soldered to the negative contact. Heat them while prying gently in between the metal negative contact ring. Once they have separated pull the driver away from the plastic base piece, one red wire will become visible. This will also need to be de soldered or cut.
Depending on the size and shape of your driver the next step will be easy of difficult. Assemble the base of the light using the new driver in reverse order of dis assembly. In the interest of trouble shooting down the road test the light to make sure it works. This will help you trouble shoot any trouble point connections. Once re assembled test and enjoy.
Heat is the first important ingredient in opening these though little heads. Many people have used hair dryers others have used hot water and a plastic bag. I have taken to using fire. This can be risky because you can over heat these gems and destroy every thing inside. Regardless of what heat source you use, strap wrenches will make this process 107 times easier. Some oven mitts or good gloves will also help because your natural reaction is to grab the object when you are working with it. This does not go over so well when you just finished cooking it .
I gently used a vice-grips to hang onto the head,
GENTLY so as not to upset the threads. I found that medium heat for about 30 seconds works, 10 or so inches above the flame. Rotating it like a marshmallow so as to not heat it un-evenly.Once you have heated the module to your liking immediately put it in the strap wrenches and begin to unscrew it. It helps to lay them out in the correct direction so that you are turning them in the correct direction .
The head is composed of 3 separate pieces. The bottom piece is what threads onto the light body. The middle is the light engine/driver and the top is the optic and housing. The last can be further disassembled but was not in this tutorial. If any part of this assembly does not simply unscrew, carefully reheat
Once you have taken all 3 of these apart you will need to clean the thread locker off of all the threaded surfaces. I use a dental pick to follow the groves in this process as it works quite well. Take care not to stab your fingers A needle nose pliers are also helpful for removing the light engine from the base.
Once you have separated all 3 components you can begin the driver and or LED swap. I did not have an upgraded emitter to replace the stock LED (looks like a P4) so I left it in place. It is held down by tiny little torques screws, T4 or T5 if I recall correctly. The driver board is connected to the LED via 2 solid wires that can be de soldered carefully by heating and unfolding the leads off the board. It also helps if you pull gently on the driver while heating the leads one side at a time. Once you have separated the two you will need to remove the driver from the base of the of the head. There are two points on the board where it is soldered to the negative contact. Heat them while prying gently in between the metal negative contact ring. Once they have separated pull the driver away from the plastic base piece, one red wire will become visible. This will also need to be de soldered or cut.
Depending on the size and shape of your driver the next step will be easy of difficult. Assemble the base of the light using the new driver in reverse order of dis assembly. In the interest of trouble shooting down the road test the light to make sure it works. This will help you trouble shoot any trouble point connections. Once re assembled test and enjoy.
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