Saving an old timer from the trash

I just revived my elderly 2 C Mag Lite from a case of ruptured alkalines. This is the light that lives in the glove box of the car. The last couple of years I've taken to obsessively opening it up and checking for leaking batteries whenever I have a few minutes to kill time in the car, a couple of times a month. However, last summer I was travelling and when I got back the Mag was totally siezed. (This is the second time I've rescued this light from leaked batteries.) I played around with it for weeks, trying to get the cap off. This week I borrowed a couple of pipe wrenches from my brother in law, thinking that if that failed, it was an excuse to get a new car light. I used an awl to break up the swollen cell, then picked and hammered it out. Then I swabbed down the interior and put some fresh alkalines in; and of course, it still works. (You have to abuse a Maglite pretty hard to break it.) I'm not sure how old it is. It has serial no. 21160445, which is at least pre-2001 (no letter C prefix). The font on the serial number is 1/8th inch high. The "Mag Instruments" lettering around the bezel appears to be engraved, not painted on. Opposite the serial number it says "Patented Made in USA" - I see the later lights just say "Patented in USA". I've E-mailed Mag customer service and I hope they can tell me when it was made. I was surprised not to find a list of serial numbers and dates here on CPF - there must be enough Mag collectors here that any given serial number could be tracked down to at least the year of manufacture. It can't be older than 1985, I remember which store I bought it at and found when it opened. I'm thinking it might be early '90s or very late '80s. This light has outlived at least 2 cars and will probably outlast the current car. Back in 2008 I bought the Mag LED for this flashlight. This doesn't compare well to the later LED flashlights I've bought (in terms of brightness and current consumption), and I imagine run time will be only a few hours - but for an occasional use glove box light, I may well get another 15 years out of it. I wish I could buy lithium/iron disulfide C cells, that way I'd never have to scrape out the barrel again and the cap wouldn't acquire any more wrench scars. Bill

Use NiMH rechargeable cells; no leaking or swelling, find them at your local box stores. I believe all Mag caps are the same (within cell config), so order a replacement one of those to visually erase your mistakes. And if you're serious about making this a long-term serious-duty light, look into getting a Malkoff drop-in; more output/runtime and actually makes your Mag much tougher than stock.

You can get Tenergy Centura low self discharge NiMH from Battery Junction. You definitely want low self discharge for something that will sit in a car until needed. Not all NiMH cells are low self discharge. I also second the recommendation of a Malkoff dropin.

StarHalo said:

Use NiMH rechargeable cells; no leaking or swelling, find them at your local box stores. I believe all Mag caps are the same (within cell config), so order a replacement one of those to visually erase your mistakes. And if you're serious about making this a long-term serious-duty light, look into getting a Malkoff drop-in; more output/runtime and actually makes your Mag much tougher than stock.

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Sound advice, though if I want LSD NiMh C size with decent capacity (not AAs in sleeves) I'll have to order on-line . I looked at the Malkoff site and I think I'd trade half the lumens for twice the run time - alkalines aren't very efficient at high discharge rates and I bet a Malkoff drop in must be pulling 2 or 3 amps out of a pair of C cells. The Mag LED takes about 1 amp, but seems to be only about 50 lumens or so. And if I get a replacement tail cap, I might just go for one of those window-breaker caps- it is after all a car flashlight.

Bill