Surefire 9N Troubleshooting

[PhillyRube]

I have two of these lights, that have served me well. One always rides in my left sap pocket. One of them no longer works on high power (140 lumen bulb). Twist it to full, and you get the smaller frosted light. On my working one, the smaller bulb is out when the 140L bulb is lit. I pulled the bulb and metered it out, it reads good. So......

Wassup with this thing?

Also, any good bulb upgrades for this light, like more lumens. Battery life is no issue, it's a rechargeable.

The wife is getting pissed, she can't understand why I've had to send expensive lights out for repair (Gladius and Wolfseyes AX) and her beat up Chinamart plastic light in her car runs forever.

I've often questioned that myself........

 

[nein166]

Sounds like theres an issue with the 2 stage switch if the bulbs light individually.
Most SF Lamp Assembly are rated for a certain amount of hours. Sounds like your bulbs have exceeded their lifetime and the plastic switch designed to last the Lamps lifetime has worn down.

If you can take the head off and rig the LA to a 3.6v power source with clips/magnets, then press the switch in. See if the switch needs to go in beyond the flat bottom. If so the plastic is worn. Or you could set it up to test for conductivity if you have a multimeter.

 

[Chrontius]

Actually, on a slight tangent, I'm wondering if the 9N and 9AN take the same bulbs - can you guys help me out?

 

[PhillyRube]

Yes they do.....that was the problem with my light.

 

[conan1911]

Actually the 9N does not have a two stage switch. I would say that the main lamp has gone out and the reason you are getting continuity is because the secondary lamp is still functional. Also, before purchasing a new lamp I would suggest bending the "U" shaped tab in the center of the lamp assembly slightly up so that it is level. This sometimes gets bent down due to use of a B92 battery instead of the more current B90. If you have any further questions you can always contact myself or Tech Support.


Stuart@surefire

 

[K-T]

Back when the 9AN was released, a bit later the LA were modified so that on highsetting both bulbs (low&high) would be burning. If the high output bulb is broken, the low output bulb would then be the burning by itself. Maybe you've got two different genereations of LAs in your 9N? Did you swap the LAs to see if you still have that problem? The older LAs had separate high and low output switching, if the high output bulb broke on the high seeting, it would have left you in the dark.

Get what I mean?