lostforawhile
12-31-2005, 07:31 PM
ok I just got my combo switch in the mail from a board member,put it in,got ready to put the cover on,and SNAP! the little plastic pieces that hold the screws in broke off at the colum. this seems to be a common problem,all that holds the entire switch in place are two 1/8 inch thick pieces of plastic. all the force from 20 years of using the turn signal,wipers,light switches etc. are taken by these tiny pieces of plastic. they usually come off a car fine,but they imedietly break when reinstalling them. I've tried gluing them,but nothin seems to adhere well to that type of plastic,and isn't strong enough anyway. I have spent all day engineering a way to fix this problem permanently,this is one of those early honda design flaws and a genetic problem in the car. those little pieces of plastic eventually stress fracture and break. to do this,from the side of the switch facing you where the two holes are the small screws go in,you need to take a step drill(uni-bit) that goes to 3/8 inch, counterbore these holes so that a round(cheesehead) phillips 6mm screw will fit down flush in them,make the hole just deep enough for the screw to sit flush,it takes a six mm by 60mm round head screw to go all the way through, on the back side of the switch,place a 6mm fender washer over the broken areas of plastic,this goes under the plastic insulator shield, and back it up with a nut( how thick the nut is is critical and i'm working on that now,will post on that when i get it perfect)at this point you will have studs on the switch instead of screw holes, it's also important to cover the exposed solder joints near one of the washers with electrical tape prior to installing the washer, where the old screws used to go on the steering colum,you will need to redrill the holes with a 1/4 inch drill bit. after doing ths you put the studs on the switch through the holes,and back them up with another 6mm fender washer and a self locking nut. once you do this the switch is much stronger and will not move,this eliminates the weak plastic points that break. I will post some pics as soon as i upload them, before you counterbore the holes in the switch,you need to remove the light switch/turn signal arm,to do this carefully remove the two small phillips screws holding the retaining bar on the switch,remove the retaining bar,and very carefully remove the switch arm,there is a spring on the end of it that rides on a ball bearing,don't lose the spring or ball bearing or your signals won't lock. after counterboring the two holes,carefully reinstall the arm and retainer bar. make sure to clean out all plastic shavings. what i was talking about on the backing nut, the nut i used was too thick,moving the switch forward and causing problems with the wheel binding on the cruise ring. I may have to mill some retaining nuts down on tuesday,I couldn't find any that were the right thickness. I spent three hours in the harware store trying to figure out how to make this entire thing work, if the nuts have to be milled down,I'll do a bunch of them so if someone needs some they have somewhere to get them.