Arc LSH-P needs new LED

Hello everyone,
I have been into LED flashlights for some time now, and had heard great things about these arc ls lights, So i decided to get one on ebay. I got one, problem is: I opened it up to see what kind of battery was in it and I noticed drill marks on the internal bezel that holds the circuitry and led in place.

I used a paperclip to remove the innards and noticed that there were old solder marks that had once fastened something in place to short a resistor... The output of this light is dim (not 22 lumen) and there are strange gaps in the beam that are not normal for a high dome arc-ls (from what I have discovered on this forum)..... the seller offered to accept it back, but I could not find any other ARC's on ebay, so I decided to keep it and refurbish it. I love the feel and form factor of this flashlight and wish it was working at full power. Right now it is great for reading by, but I hope to use it for more than this!

I payed 160 dollars for this dying ARC.... which was a mistake because I bid very high (buy now price equivalent) and the only other bid brought it to that price from about 40 dollars (it would appear that it was the seller's bid).... It has become a duty of love and I don't mind investing more to restore this beautiful light

I have browsed this forum many times over the last year, and have only registered today. I would love to post here in the future, now that I have finally bitten the bullet. I have the E1L outdoorsman and the E2L from surefire... both great lights... I have a bunch of (not that spectacular) COAST lights and I do a lot of longer term backpack based camping expeditions. I also use my lights to work on computers, which is my day job. The E1L should be only a little more powerful than my ARC (with tighter throw) but appears to be about 5 times more powerful than my dud ARC-LSH - P!

My question for you folk is, How can I upgrade this piece of art, so that it will work the way it was intended to, or better?

I was hoping for a newer luxeon LED, Is there anyone here who can do this for me? I was hoping to learn that there was a drop-in solution, but have searched quite a bit and found no such product. Any advice would be welcome...

If I am posting in the wrong area, I apologize in advance, and will move the post wherever it belongs.

We are talking about ARC LSH-P #646

Thanks in advance,
Matthew

Sounds like someone put another resistor on top of the original to lower the value. This increases the current going to the LED. It may be that your SF's have the new Cree LED and that's why they are so much more brighter.

Putting a Seoul P4 in there would brighten it up! Possibly the new TFC K2's as well if it would fit. Beam pattern is unknown with the NX05 optic with either LED but should be somewhat decent, or you could swap to a reflector.