‘lumen onion
Newly Enlightened
Thanks everyone. This community far exceeded my expectations for a first post. It's not like this in every forum, ya know. Used to different treatment.
please point n00b to "old maglite" Xenon-to-LED conversion tips
- Thread starter ‘lumen onion
- Start date
Help Support Candle Power Flashlight Forum
PM incoming
I had a chance to look at Onion's Mag and thought this'd be a good place to show a repair these sometimes need. In addition to a new bulb retainer and switch cover, his 5C had a missing positive battery contact. The fact it was missing is unusual, but the reason it's missing is pretty common in my experience.
The C-cell Mag switches use a couple molded-in locating pins to hold the switch contacts in place. The pin for the battery contact pretty frequently breaks off and if you're unlucky the contact itself goes missing. You can see the other locating pin still intact on the other end of the switch:
No point is replacing a whole switch over this. The fix involves drilling out the pin's base:
And installing a replacement. Metal is fine since the pin is completely insulated by the switch body. The additional length is to stop the pin from walking out of its new hole:
Good as new:
The C-cell Mag switches use a couple molded-in locating pins to hold the switch contacts in place. The pin for the battery contact pretty frequently breaks off and if you're unlucky the contact itself goes missing. You can see the other locating pin still intact on the other end of the switch:
No point is replacing a whole switch over this. The fix involves drilling out the pin's base:
And installing a replacement. Metal is fine since the pin is completely insulated by the switch body. The additional length is to stop the pin from walking out of its new hole:
Good as new:
‘lumen onion
Newly Enlightened
thanks
love it
what was the set screw size?
love it
what was the set screw size?
Last edited:
Great work @ABTOMAT. So awesome to see our esteemed members helping each other. Love to see old Mags back in action.
Thanks. It's a nice 30+ year old light, deserves to be working. The switch screw is a 1/16" hex and it's in good shape. If your hex key didn't work I'd check to see if it's fouled up or the wrong diameter.
To remove the switch, once that screw is backed off several turns, then you unscrew the retaining ring inside the head end of the tube with a pin spanner. The whole assembly will slide out the front after that. Keep a firm grip on the switch housing as it's coming out of the light because it'll want to fly apart under switch pressure and you're never finding all the parts under your radiator or washing machine. From the factory the switches come tightly wrapped with tape to keep them together until they're installed.
To remove the switch, once that screw is backed off several turns, then you unscrew the retaining ring inside the head end of the tube with a pin spanner. The whole assembly will slide out the front after that. Keep a firm grip on the switch housing as it's coming out of the light because it'll want to fly apart under switch pressure and you're never finding all the parts under your radiator or washing machine. From the factory the switches come tightly wrapped with tape to keep them together until they're installed.
Last edited:
