:Anyone: Bent coil spring in head of MPP-1 head. What to do?

So i was really looking forward to my solarforce MPP-1 with L2i body (3AAA) in the mail. Was to be a gift to a non-flashaholic who appreciates throwy lights. I got it and wanted to see how throwy it could possible be running on 3AAAs. I, for who knows what reason, just wanted to screw everything in before even plopping in batteries to see how the whole things look. Well, when i was screwing the body (which had the 3AAA holder and tailcap already screwed on) onto the head, I noticed quite a bit of resistance, but i screwed it all the way in anyways. Well, after that, i thought it was rather weird, so i unscrewed it and the coil spring at the head was bent sideways!!!! Could i have gotten a faulty coil spring at the head or a faulty node on the 3AAA body holder that caused the coil spring to catch and bend sideways? Needless to say, i'm quite disappointed as this was to be a gift for someone. What do you i suggest i do? Should i try and bend the coil spring back to straight with pliers (any risk it will snap the coil spring?)? Ask jo at solarforce as to why this happened (i don't think i did anything wrong... I just screwed the body and the head together...) and see if anything can be done? Let me know what you think! Anyone ever have this same problem with their solarforce masterpiece pro 1 head? Thanks in advance.

What does the top of the 3aa holder look like? Personally i wouldnt have screwed the body on with the holder in place. You may be able to sort the spring, I have in the past. Dont tug too hard on the circuit board though. Maybe use two pairs of needlenose pliers.

It looks like the spring has caught on the end of the battery holder as you screwed the head on, and you have twisted the spring. You will IMO run the risk of snapping the spring out of the solder if you apply too much pressure.

Thinking back on it, i probably shouldn't have screwed the body with the holder already inside on the head, but it was like that in the package. Head separate, and body with holder and switch all screwed together. Being lazy, i just screwed it on as is...
I'll try two pliers. Bending the spring straight shouldn't be so much a problem(i think), but as for the amount of compression of the spring, it's going to be difficult to correct it so it's sticking out the right distance i think...

here's the picture of the 3AAA holder:

Good luck. Silly way to supply it if this is what happens when you just screw it together. They should add a note or something not to do this.
If you explain the situation you could probably return it.
I was thinking about getting this package myself. What emitter comes in the MPP-1 head, XR-E?

I'll try to talk to jo at solarforce. I'm just curious if i got a defective one. It doesn't make sense that the head's coil spring would deform like that just by screwing the body with the holder already inside on. Maybe a design flaw if it's happened to others as well? I wonder how much it would cost to ship back to solarforce from north america..... sigh... as if it's going to be an exorbitant amount, i might just try and plier it straight. I paid 43.99+2.00 for it with the promotion on solarforce's site, so lets hope it's not too crazy for shipping... Maybe he'll send me another head? hehe..

PapaLumen said:

I was thinking about getting this package myself. What emitter comes in the MPP-1 head, XR-E?

Click to expand...

Yeah it's an xr-e R2. Should be a beast.

You bendt it when installing/forcing the head on with the battery holder in the tube. Have seen warnings about this, i bent mine and also broke the switch this way.
Just bend it back. Unscrew the pill for easy acsess to the spring.

jorn said:

You bendt it when installing/forcing the head on with the battery holder in the tube. Have seen warnings about this, i bent mine and also broke the switch this way.
Just bend it back. Unscrew the pill for easy acsess to the spring.

Click to expand...

There were no warnings in my package not to do this (although i had misgivings about doing it). It's kind of like coming to a wall with a large red button on it... you know you just want to push it. The package came with the head separate and the body already with the holder and switch put together, so normally (not correctly) you just want to screw the body on the head. How did you brake your switch by doing this? You'd have to have the holder inside the body tube when screw the switch on though. weirrrd.

I'll try unscrewing the pill if it's not too difficult.

A further warning - be aware that the L2i body is a tight fit, lengthwise, if you choose to run a single 18650 in place of the AAA's. I put a thick O ring between the Pro-1 head and the L2i body to alleviate this a bit. Also, the 18650 battery tends to want to shift off centre in the L2i body - I run length of plastic tube inside the body to keep the 18650 sitting straight.

Other than that - this light is a great thrower and great value!

No warnings on the package, I found it somewhere here on cpf after bending my spring. It's no prob to remove the pill, just grab it, or the outer spring and unscrew it. Wouldent waste money on shipping costs over a bendt spring, when they are easy to bend back into shape.