Anyone else's Quark switch do this? :D (with video)

Got my 18650 body and regular tail in yesterday for my QAAT neutral, and noticed some rather odd behaviour. The switch works fine three out of every four clicks. I don't know how the internals function, but I can see this happening if it's anything like a ballpoint pen with a rotating cam. One tooth, or position on the cam is the wrong depth, and the plunger travels back too far, breaking the connection. Anyway, I'm not too disappointed, seeing as how the switch works normally 75% of the time, but I will be sending it back. I just thought it was hilarious that it could fail so predictably like that. On, off, on, off, on, off, *click*...nothing. Took me a little while to figure it out too..

Anyway, I grabbed a quick vid to illustrate my three-quarter Quark. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cffgzQqpvqg

Guess I'll have to throw the tac tail back on for now.

This is interesting, I have only used my tactical tail cap on my Quark because from what I was reading was that there was no difference between the two other then tail standing ability. When I tried my standard tail cap on my tactical 123^2 versus the tactical tail cap it does not do momentary before you actually do a full click and I was not happy about that. So I haven't really played with it much since I got it as I prefer to the momentary ability. I'll have to check it now and see if it is doing the same thing though in case I decide to use it.

MerkurMan said:

On, off, on, off, on, off, *click*...nothing.

Click to expand...

Having the exact same problem with my single AA non-tact. :thinking: Just been living with it so far, but recently its been gettin' on my nerves.

I have mentioned my issue in a previous thread. It is very similar, but mine gets stuck on and won't turn off lol.

Happens to both of my Quarks...

Mine has done it too, like maybe three/four times. I've had it about a month. Worried me at first but hasn't done it in a bit now.

The thing is that it shouldn't do it at all :laughing:

I have had clickies from all levels of manufacturer do this, every time it was a matter of too thick a lube, more like grease inside the mechanism, a quick disassembly/cleaning/re lube with krytox cured them all.
And the fact that it is predictable on #x click was the exact problem.

I had this problem on one of my Quarks. A quick exchange of emails with 4Sevens and they sent me a new tail free of charge.

Beamhead, I've disassembled the tail and replaced the switch in Quarks and Fenix lights, but I haven't tried to disassemble the switch itself to remove excess lube. How hard is that?

Well my Ti Quark AA Tactical refuses to go into momentary on, unless I press it a few times. I'm gonna take it apart again to see if I can clean up the connection a bit...

-Mayo

chaosmagnet said:

I had this problem on one of my Quarks. A quick exchange of emails with 4Sevens and they sent me a new tail free of charge.

Beamhead, I've disassembled the tail and replaced the switch in Quarks and Fenix lights, but I haven't tried to disassemble the switch itself to remove excess lube. How hard is that?

Click to expand...

Its varying difficulties for different clickies, the one in the Quark is not bad, you just carefully pry the two switch housing bits apart with a sharp knife, then open it up paying close attention to how the parts go together for reassembly.

I just got a wonky Quark switch today that would not work every 4th click so I shot some pics of the fix.

First there are thin slits on two sides that I separate with a sharp knife.




The switch housing separated.



All the parts in order from left to right.



After a cleaning of the black plastic parts I lube all surfaces that ratchet with krytox, you can use a light grease or machine oil. I also like to stretch the spring just a hair while in the unit.




Then carefully reassemble/realign all parts, mine is working fine now.

I would do this in an area where there is wide open floor and have a magnetic pickup tool handy, the spring seems to fly away every time I fix a clickie.

to Beamhead --


Wow, excellent photographs !


:goodjob::kewlpics::thanks:
_

Beamhead, those pics are fantastic! Thank you so much for posting them. It looks as if the switch is similar to what I had imagined - a ratcheting cam with eight positions. I was hesitant to pull it apart because I wasn't sure how delicate it was. After seeing your pictures, however, I feel pretty confident that I can fix mine. I'll clean it up and slap some Krytox 223 in there, and hopefully it'll solve my problem. I'll also keep my eye out for any bent or misaligned tabs on that contact wheel.

lovecpf

Burgess, :thanks:

MerkurMan, hope it works, let us know.

Beamhead said:

Burgess, :thanks:

MerkurMan, hope it works, let us know.

Click to expand...

Or you could just spray the crap out of the switch with WD-40 like I do.

i could live with a random misfire of the switch, it will probably clear up with use.id likely destroy the switch trying to fix it.

Thank you for the pictures Beamhead, VERY helpful!

-Mayo

Well, after tinkering with it for a bit, bending this and tweaking that, I finally fixed it! I believe the problem was a combination of things. I tried bending the ears of metal switch gear/ring, and that didn't work. I tried tweaking the two contact points on either end of the switch base, and that didn't work. Well, after about six or seven dis- and re-assembly attempts, the combination of everything seemed to work, and now I have a 100% functional switch again.

Sounds like you had a truly troubled unit, glad you got it fixed.