TR2/3/3A TR3 headlamp dimmer switch

[TruCraft]

I hit my dimmer switch once to often I guess and the sheet metal button broke loose from the rod and the spring pushed it into the air!
It hit me in the leg while I was driving, I thought something dropped in my car!?

It looks like it was rivoted on.
Before I throw it away and spend $45 for a new one, I will try to fix it.
Maybe drill & tap the rod for a FHCS or TIG weld it back on.
Nothing to lose.
Will let you know how it goes.
Anybody cheap like me and tried to fix one?
Lyle

 

[DougF]

If your car isn't concourse or shown at Triumph events, I would save a considerable amount of time and money and go to the local autoparts store and buy a new switch. Take your switch for a comparative match.

 

[Andrew Mace]

Lyle, aren't you at all annoyed by the lack of durability of a part like that? I mean, only 50 years!?

 

[Don Elliott]

My dimmer switch failed in exactly the same way last year - exactly at the 50-year mark. I couldn't be bothered with trying to find a way that would fix it, so I bought a new one. Now I know this new dimmer switch will give me another 50 years of reliable clicking from low beam to high beam and back without wondering if it might fall apart again.

 

[tinman58]

My dimmer switch failed at about 45 years. Must have been defective!

 

[Andrew Mace]

My dimmer switch failed in exactly the same way last year - exactly at the 50-year mark. I couldn't be bothered with trying to find a way that would fix it, so I bought a new one. Now I know this new dimmer switch will give me another 50 years of reliable clicking from low beam to high beam and back without wondering if it might fall apart again.

Hmmm...I guess I should begin to be wary of my Herald's foot dimmer switch somewhere around December 2011?

 

[Geo Hahn]

...It looks like it was rivoted on. Before I throw it away and spend $45 for a new one, I will try to fix it. Maybe drill & tap the rod for a FHCS or TIG weld it back on....Anybody cheap like me and tried to fit one?
Lyle

Mine did that and I fixed it with a screw rather than a rivet. Might have been just a sheet metal screw or some 'self-tapping' screw as I do not recall tapping anything.

Been that way for 10 or 15 years now and has not come apart again, so yes -- probably worth a try.

 

[TruCraft]

Yep, 50 years is really good!
Repaired and installed it today.
Very simple to do.
I taped off around the rod so no chips would get in the switch.
Then in the rod coming out of the switch, I drilled a(.136") hole about 5/16 deep, then tapped 8-32.
Then bead blasted the unit.
Then just put the spring and button on and screwed in a 8-32 BHCS.
Hey, it works and I saved money also.
Good for another 50 years!
Lyle