Fenix LD22 Tail Cap

I've been using my Fenix LD22 for about 6 months now but recently I've been having the same tail cap issues that many LD20 users have had. The light would flicker intermittently and now it just won't turn on with the tail cap. The flashlight turns on when I complete the circuit with a screwdriver so I know it's a tail cap issue. I was going to attempt to try to fix the tail cap myself but it looks completely different than all of the guides that I see on the internet. The tail caps in all of the videos and pictures I see have a solid metal washer with two holes diametrically opposed, but my tailcap has this thin partial ring with two circles around the 5 oclock and 7 oclock positions. Here is a photo of my tail cap.

http://imgur.com/WGLf6cV

I can't for the life of me get this thing off. I tried putting in the pliers and rotating it like the original cap but it just spins around instead of coming off. It seems like it's kind of notched into the outer casing and I try to pull the ring inwards to pop it off but it just won't budge. Does anyone know how I can try to fix this thing?

Pochama said:

.... It seems like it's kind of notched into the outer casing and I try to pull the ring inwards to pop it off but it just won't budge. Does anyone know how I can try to fix this thing?

Click to expand...

Yeah, it looks like it's just spring loaded where you have reduce the diameter of the retaining clip and lift up. So, if you stick needle nose plier into the two holes, and squeeze (so the holes are touching) you can't get it out? or can't squeeze them together enough?

Worse come to worse, you can by-pass an anodized tailcap with a piece of tinfoil turning it into a twisty. Another option you may want to search for is using a Quark tailcap ($9)... thought I read the threads were the same between Fenix LDs and Quarks.

Whats the green ring in there? did an Alkaline leak?

It's called a circlip. They make special pliers to grab them, fairly cheap at Harbor Freight if you have one near by. There are two types, inside and outside. You need the pliers that squeeze together, there are ones for a clip that goes around a shaft and needs to be spread apart. There are kits with different plier heads for both types, too.

To your root problem, you have lost continuity somewhere between the end of the spring and the clip, which contact the battery negative and flashlight body, respectively, which it sounds like you know. I would suspect under the clip, which has to maintain contact with the outer surface of the board that the spring is soldered onto.

The plus side of this design is that there is no threaded ring to come loose when changing the batteries. Unscrewing the cap tends to loosen that ring. The down side is there is no ring to tighten to ensure contact to the switch board, if the circlip has bad contact to the board, you have to take it apart and clean it, and possibly add some tin foil under the circlip to get a tight fit. If you have any De-Oxit, this a great place to use that stuff, great for removing oxidizing on conductive surfaces. Good luck!