Sur-ela's / Cab-fire switch fix?

Hi all -- I'm really a flashaholic, but I'm a wannabe, and thanks to this Marketplace thread I acquired my best light (sad, I know).

Unfortunately, 1 night into a 3-night camping/canoeing trip it crapped out. Just from one minute to the next, dead. It seems from the comments in the same thread that the switch is the likely culprit...

Now, I realize the correct answer to fix this is "buy a Surefire switch" but I'm too broke for that right now. Any DIY-type solutions? Or any way to confirm it's the switch?

Thanks for the help!

That's an incan, so you may have blown the bulb.

I can't help with a switch repair, but can tell you how to test it. Remove the tailcap, then short the battery terminal to the body. If it lights, it's your switch or contact problems with the tail cap. (If it doesn't light, the problem is in the other part. Maybe bulb, maybe batteries, or maybe contact problems in the head.)

Did you drop it at some point? That might have caused damage and different sorts of problems. Did you do any upgrades? That too would change the things that might fail....

LED_astray said:

That's an incan, so you may have blown the bulb.

Click to expand...

D'OH! But it's such a TINY bulb...

I can't help with a switch repair, but can tell you how to test it. Remove the tailcap, then short the battery terminal to the body. If it lights, it's your switch or contact problems with the tail cap. (If it doesn't light, the problem is in the other part. Maybe bulb, maybe batteries, or maybe contact problems in the head.)

Did you drop it at some point? That might have caused damage and different sorts of problems. Did you do any upgrades? That too would change the things that might fail....

Click to expand...

Okay, I think I tried a body short a while back and got nothing, so I'll move on from there. I didn't drop it on anything hard, though I think I tossed it onto my sleeping bag before finding it unresponsive...



Thanks very much! If I make any progress I'll report back...

Finding a replacement lamp won't be too difficult...considering that due to recent increase in the popularity of P60 type LED drop-ins theres an abundence of P60 6V lamp assemblies floating around BST with no one willing to pick them up.

The 6V cabelas "6P" clone uses the same lamp as that of the 6P [P60]
If you prefer xenon you could stay the route but if you want to try out LEDs, theres many different flavors to choose from.

I dunno about the cabelas lights but surefire G/P series uses a twisty with momentary rather than a clickie, so they are almost immune to breaking. as for the concrning clickies, if the assembly is press-fit it would be nearly impossible without destroying it during the disassembly.

Illum_the_nation said:

as for the concrning clickies, if the assembly is press-fit it would be nearly impossible without destroying it during the disassembly.

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Correct. I am pretty clever at such things, and after I got it apart I both could not re-assemble it in working order nor see how I could have done it differently so that it could have been re-assembled. Cabela's warranty is first rate, although I'm not sure how long ago you got it or if it is still available.