Malkoff doesn't Fit my Surefire (L60L)

I just purchased the Surefire L60L, which is the tube and bezel assembly designed to fit SF's dedicated forend weaponlights and use P60 sized LED drop-ins.

Unfortunately when I try to install my Malkoff M60W MC-E, the bezel stops short of threading on all the way. It leaves a gap of about a 1/4". I also needed to stretch out the LED spring a bit to allow contact with the battery. The bottom of the bezel area does have a plastic grommet installed by Surefire. I removed it and tried without it, but it does not change the gap size.

As of right now, it does work, but I'm concerned. Is this fit normal? Should I be concerned about weather resistance? Did I do something wrong?

Assembled bezel with Malkoff (see gap)


Assembled bezel with normal P60 drop-in

Its normal. Surefire has made that specific housing to only take their lamp assembly. Look at the grommet in the bottom. Its pushing the Malkoff unit away. A friend of my who is a gun dealer and also a SureFire dealer and I were working on a SF dedicated shot gun light and we noticed this. We could not get a standard Malkoff M60 to fit. I showed him how he could replace the entire front end of the host with the solarforce L2 mini and put the Malkoff in that. It worked just fine that way. You would probably have heat dissipation problems anyway if you used this one because it pushes the module away from the inside of the host wall. This is made strictly for their incandescent P60 series lamps.

Lighthound.com had plenty of the Solarforce L2m's in stock and they come with an extension tube to make you think its a regular L2 but it screws off. That's one way to get around this.

Or if you like to spend lots of money. You can get the FiveMega host in the same size for a 1 CR123 battery and buy a separate Bezel and do it with better knurling and anodizing but it will still be the same fit and function.

I beg your pardon, but this is SF's new host, the L60L, specifically made for their LED, not their incandescent. This host has no shock isolation.

And again, I removed the grommet and it did not change the fitment of the Malkoff.

I'll look into the Solarforce and FiveMega options. Thank you. I guess I'm disappointed though that nothing can be done about this specific SF host. The Malkoff fits my 6P just fine . . .

gunfighter said:

I beg your pardon, but this is SF's new host, the L60L, specifically made for their LED, not their incandescent. This host has no shock isolation.

And again, I removed the grommet and it did not change the fitment of the Malkoff.

I'll look into the Solarforce and FiveMega options. Thank you. I guess I'm disappointed though that nothing can be done about this specific SF host. The Malkoff fits my 6P just fine . . .

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The one that I worked on was identical to this and it held an Incan light. So if your's is an LED, so sorry, there is no difference that I can see. We took the incan module out of it and set it aside, when we put it back in the dang thing blew immediately which was funny since I was told its a $30 replacement lamp assy (two of those and guess what, you paid for a Malkoff M60).

I don't believe its shockproof for the lamp, I believe they designed it this way to keep the battery tabs from crushing in on themselves from the recoil of a pump action 12 gauge shot gun and becoming loose so that the contact would be too intermittent during use. That's the way I see it.

Either way they designed it to not fit the Malkoff's but only their own modules.

MrGman said:

Its normal. Surefire has made that specific housing to only take their lamp assembly. Look at the grommet in the bottom. Its pushing the Malkoff unit away. A friend of my who is a gun dealer and also a SureFire dealer and I were working on a SF dedicated shot gun light and we noticed this. We could not get a standard Malkoff M60 to fit. I showed him how he could replace the entire front end of the host with the solarforce L2 mini and put the Malkoff in that. It worked just fine that way. You would probably have heat dissipation problems anyway if you used this one because it pushes the module away from the inside of the host wall. This is made strictly for their incandescent P60 series lamps.

Lighthound.com had plenty of the Solarforce L2m's in stock and they come with an extension tube to make you think its a regular L2 but it screws off. That's one way to get around this.

Or if you like to spend lots of money. You can get the FiveMega host in the same size for a 1 CR123 battery and buy a separate Bezel and do it with better knurling and anodizing but it will still be the same fit and function.

Click to expand...

Unless SF has changed the tail threading for their weaponlight bodies that screw into their weaponlight fore-ends, a standard 6P or clone handheld body does not have compatible weaponlight threading at the tail. So I don't see how getting a FiveMega, or Solarforce L2 or L2m solves the problem.

gunfighter said:

I just purchased the Surefire L60L, which is the tube and bezel assembly designed to fit SF's dedicated forend weaponlights and use P60 sized LED drop-ins.

Unfortunately when I try to install my Malkoff M60W MC-E, the bezel stops short of threading on all the way. It leaves a gap of about a 1/4". I also needed to stretch out the LED spring a bit to allow contact with the battery. The bottom of the bezel area does have a plastic grommet installed by Surefire. I removed it and tried without it, but it does not change the gap size.

As of right now, it does work, but I'm concerned. Is this fit normal? Should I be concerned about weather resistance? Did I do something wrong?

Click to expand...

The "neck" of an SF weaponlight has a slightly different internal profile vs an SF handheld 6P or other SF "Classic" handheld.

As long as the bezel seats around the o-ring, you should be ok wrt environmental resistance. The Malkoff is known to have a small gap with the SF handhelds. I haven't seen as large of a gap in my L60 weaponlights as your 1/4" gap, but I have old SF weaponlights and presumably the weaponlight neck profile has changed.

You can take up some of the gap in the following ways:

- Use a Z32 shock bezel. The downside here is that the Z32 has poorer heat sinking capability vs the standard Z44 bezel. This might or might not be an issue, hard to say. If I used this approach, what I would do is wrap about two layers of 3M 1181 conductive copper tape around the Malkoff brass body to improve the thermal path to the flashlight "neck". Then perhaps the poorer heat sinking of the Z32 might be offset. The Z32 could potentially accommodate the entire 1/4", but you may also notice that the polymer shock absorbing material gets rather squashed.

- Use a Solarforce or G&P clone SF Z44 bezel. If you don't use the included "fitting ring", you will get about 0.08" extra room to accommodate over-long drop-ins. That will reduce the gap from 1/4" (16/64") to about 11/64".

- Judiciously file the bottom edge of the Malkoff body to better match the weaponlight neck profile so that the drop-in sits deeper in the neck. I don't think it will take much filing.

Thanks for the info. I like this option the best;

- Judiciously file the bottom edge of the Malkoff body to better match the weaponlight neck profile so that the drop-in sits deeper in the neck. I don't think it will take much filing.

I wonder if Gene would turn me a custom brass body that better fits my SF host? Before I annoy him with my questions, does anyone know if he's open to custom work?

Justin Case said:

Unless SF has changed the tail threading for their weaponlight bodies that screw into their weaponlight fore-ends, a standard 6P or clone handheld body does not have compatible weaponlight threading at the tail. So I don't see how getting a FiveMega, or Solarforce L2 or L2m solves the problem.

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I know I have done it on one model of a SF weaponlight product, but that doesn't mean it works for all, that is true. It screwed right it on the first try.

gunfighter said:

Thanks for the info. I like this option the best;

- Judiciously file the bottom edge of the Malkoff body to better match the weaponlight neck profile so that the drop-in sits deeper in the neck. I don't think it will take much filing.

I wonder if Gene would turn me a custom brass body that better fits my SF host? Before I annoy him with my questions, does anyone know if he's open to custom work?

Click to expand...

He isn't doing custom work as he is way busy bringing out his production line. I would not take the recommendation of filing away the brass of the Malkoff module to make it fit. You don't know how much case wall you have to work with. There are lots of other mounts to hold a standard 1 inch diameter tube light. If the Surefire stock light isn't bright enough and you aren't happy with it, I would return it before I start hacking up Malkoff modules. You could try dropping in a Dereelight pill or some other module with a standard reflector and board if the Malkoff's don't fit.

Dremel + heavy sanding drum = success!

Grind the inside of the Surefire so the Malkoff will seat properly. It wll help if you hold the body with a wet rag while grinding. Take your time.

MrGman said:

He isn't doing custom work as he is way busy bringing out his production line. I would not take the recommendation of filing away the brass of the Malkoff module to make it fit. You don't know how much case wall you have to work with. There are lots of other mounts to hold a standard 1 inch diameter tube light. If the Surefire stock light isn't bright enough and you aren't happy with it, I would return it before I start hacking up Malkoff modules. You could try dropping in a Dereelight pill or some other module with a standard reflector and board if the Malkoff's don't fit.

Click to expand...

He knows how much case wall there is now. There is plenty of brass thickness at the base.





See this link for some discussion on sanding the brass body. Sanding, filing, whatever. Metal removal done carefully. Gene himself says there is no problem unless you remove a lot of material, and you won't be doing that.