SF L1 LED easily replaceable?

I have a Surefire L1 with a badly tinted LED. The beam has a blue-violet hotspot with yellow-green spill. Other than the beam color, this is really one of my favorate lights. Any suggestion or experience on replacing the LED on L1?

"Easily", to me, means simple parts swapping and/or minimum soldering, etc. I don't have access to professional tools. TIA!

This should be in the mod forum. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Getting the bezel unscrewed is the hardest part. In general, I've found L1 heads are easier to open than KL1s. Once you've gotten it open, all you have to do is unsolder the old LED and solder on the new one. Be sure to keep track of which side is + and which is -, though.

Centering the new emitter can be a little tricky. After you remove the old emitter, clean the thermal grease with a qtip soaked in alcohol, then apply just a dab to the new emitter, and put it in place as close to center as you can by hand. Then just drop the optic in place - when the yellow from the phosphor fills the optic, you're centered. Then carefully remove the optic and solder your emitter down. The thermal paste should be viscous enough to hold the emitter steady while you solder if you're gentle enough.

Sorry for posting to the wrong forum and Thanks for the tips.

Is there a good source to get such small quantity (1 or 2) of the LS 1w LEDs. As I am replacing the tinted one, I definitely like to get one as "white" as possible, ie, from a better bin.

The Sandwich Shoppe sells Luxeon LEDs
You could also put a WTB: (Want To Buy) add in the B/S/T Forum

Thanks for the help.

I am half way there, I think. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif I've got the bezel off and cleaned. Just need to get the new LED to swap out the old one.

Thanks, guys!

KL1's just hold the emitter down by the leads and use thermal grease? How come they don't use any thermal epoxy? The leads from the emitter press it down hard enough???

I've never seen any epoxy holding any Surefire LED. I've only opened L1 and KL1 heads, though. The KL4 has escaped dissection so far...

Grease allows adjustment if the LED is off center of the optic....the lens pushes the optic down hard enough to hold the LED. By the way Cnee, consider using a 3 watt emitter to replace the surefire emitter. I just converted mine (thanks for the knowledge shared by the good folks at CPF!) and I LOVE my L1 now! Much brighter and whiter!

Hmm. I guess the specifications and clearnces are very exact on SF. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif

I can confirm tyler's suspicions. The LED on the KL4 is NOT epoxied. They use the same thermal compound (looks like it anyway) that they use in the KL1.

Yes, the tolerances are tight in the Surefire lights. They have to be; otherwise, the optic would rattle around in the head.

Although I have epoxied the emitter in place with some of my mods, going with the thermal compound has not presented any problems. It also helps in centering in that the emitter can be moved a little bit, after the emitter is soldered in place.

Hi b2eze, that is a great idea. Is the 3W still within (whatever) spec of the DC circuit designed for? What was the impact on battery run time? Would the original optics still fit? I would appreciate your expriences on this mod since I a newbie on flashlight mods. TIA!