SOMEONE HELP Pleasseeee..

Okay the plan was to order a nice new TX1K and boost the current to my current arc ls. Everything came in the mail today...... but then i tried to remove this blasted retaining ring, and its NOT budging!! ive checked the other posts and saw something about arc using loctite to seal up the ring, but mine was a second and i dont see anything thats keeping me from twisting this thing out. i do twist it right? counterclockwise? just want to make sure im not tighting it... Pleasee help, this is very frustrating. Thanks.

If the used loctite, you may need to heat it. Also you may need a pair of strap wrenches. To heat, I put the head in a plastic zip-lock bag and in a pan of boiling water for 10 minutes to loosen the bond of the loctite.

what does the loctite look like? i dont think there is any on my head, why else would it refuse to come out? thanks.

Yep I did mine and the stuff looked like solder, it was silver in color. Took old dentist tool (wife is a hygentist)and started scraping. Then shoved in 2 allen wrenches into the tiny holes on the retaining ring and unscrewed it.

After chipping the visible stuff out, I drilled out the holes a bit bigger so the tips of a pair of long nose pliers fit better. Once I got a good grip on the ring, it twisted right out.
Rob

okay i cant take this blasted thing out.. i put so much torque on this thing that the holes are starting to get stripped and my tools are bending.. this has got to be the most stubborn thing in the world. I dont believe there is any loctite on this as there is nothing on the threads. What else would cause this thing not to come out? you do twist counterclockwise right? also is there any replacement for these retaining rings? as i plan to just cut the thing up if nothing else helps. Thanks.

okay i finally got it.. whew.. switched tools and twisted harder than ever, it finally gave in. Thanks guys.

Yep. I use a pair of modified pliers and about 3 feet of board with holes drilled in it to accept the ends of the pliers. This allows me to apply lots of torque with minimal ring damage. Most of the Arcs have loctite in them, the thing about it is that even if you do have it, it won't show up anywhere but in between the surfaces it's locking, since it doesn't cure in the presence of oxygen, and any excess is wiped off during the final processing at Arc. Older arcs used some kind of silver epoxy, but that is not loctite. Loctite is green, and once you have the ring open, it usually flakes off onto your optic and causes no end of trouble.

That is exactly what i found after i finally got the ring out, this green flaky stuff, guess it had loctite after all. There was no trace of it before the retaining ring was removed. Anyway the mod was completed, and i dont know how bright its supposed to be as i have no other arc ls to reference it to. The only thing i have thats close to it is 3watt DD mod driven with 3aaa's. It is about the same brightness as that. Can someone verify that the current has been increased? The only thing that suggests that the current has indeed been increased is the fact that the light gets warmer a lot faster than it used to. Thanks.

Getting warmer faster is a nearly sure sign you've done something to the drive current. You could also do a runtime test against Arc's quoted numbers. What exactly did you do to the circuit? If you're adding a resistor in parallel with the existing current sense resistor, the formula is .05/your new total resistance to get the current to the LED.

i soldered on a .12 resistor on the two free pads next to the r15 resistor. It should be something like 750ma. Maybe i just expected too much, something along the lines of it being close to the output of my 5w 6aa DD mad 2d. =X