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General TR Steering Shaft/Column Short Circuit?--Electrical Issue with Light Switch

KVH

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I just installed a new light switch in my steering column. I feel the switch is improperly manufactured. The blue/white wire protrudes into the shaft space and I can feel the signal "trip rib" on the shaft lightly brushing that wire as I rotate the shaft, right where the wire insulation ends. I've disassembled and reassembled four times and if I bend that wire and connector any further I'm concerned I'll ruin the light switch solder plate.

So, for the electrical experts here, would it make any difference if my steering shaft occasionally brushed past that wire as I was steering? I just don't understand "electrics" enough to know what it might mean to add any kind of intermittent or fleeting "negative current" to that circuit. Do I need to just get bold and bend that connection way back? Thanks guys!

PS I'm getting frustrated by the increasing number of defective parts I'm receiving. This one clearly should have been manufactured with the screw mounting holes forward an eighth of an inch. My shaft bushings were another story of bad parts. Anyway . . .
 

Andrew Mace

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I just installed a new light switch in my steering column. I feel the switch is improperly manufactured. The blue/white wire protrudes into the shaft space and I can feel the signal "trip rib" on the shaft lightly brushing that wire as I rotate the shaft, right where the wire insulation ends. I've disassembled and reassembled four times and if I bend that wire and connector any further I'm concerned I'll ruin the light switch solder plate.

So, for the electrical experts here, would it make any difference if my steering shaft occasionally brushed past that wire as I was steering? I just don't understand "electrics" enough to know what it might mean to add any kind of intermittent or fleeting "negative current" to that circuit. Do I need to just get bold and bend that connection way back? Thanks guys!

PS I'm getting frustrated by the increasing number of defective parts I'm receiving. This one clearly should have been manufactured with the screw mounting holes forward an eighth of an inch. My shaft bushings were another story of bad parts. Anyway . . .

You've described yet another reason why I seek out NOS or excellent used parts whenever possible. I personally would NOT want to see a powered wire ever contacting the steering column; that's pretty much how Lucas manufactures replacement smoke. :( It does, though, sound as if the location of the mounting screw holes is the fault here. Might there be a way to ever so slightly "slot" the holes in the column so that the switch might come away from the column just that wee bit? I personally hate to modify original parts in order to accommodate bad repro parts, but there's that whole spark / smoke / smell / possible fire thing, so....
 
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KVH

KVH

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OK, Iā€™ll take your advice. Off it all comes again. Iā€™ll see if I can expand those holes.
 
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