Just posted on FB. 

I managed to get it all reassembled and the switch is working ok. I was playing with it a bunch and maybe every 20-30 "toggles" the switch gets a bit jammed. Normally just pressing the switch again fixes it, but one time I had to take it out, manually push it, and then it was good again.

In case anyone stumbles across this the spring I ended up choosing was "BB-31CS" (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/century-spring-corp/BB-31CS/11671413) which is:

OD - 0.105" (2.67mm)
Length - 0.280" (7.11mm)
Spring rate - 0.86 lbs/in

Terrapin. I'll shoot you a message because having a backup would be good anyway

Probably going to have to contact the guy on FB market Place directly.

Oh shoot I misread Terrapins post. I'll reach out to them on FB

Yeah Harold is the guy with the parts. hopefully he still has it. It sounded like just what you were after and a decent price too. 

@hotsho111 Nice rundown of the switch design and components, thanks. I have a related problem. Apologies for hijacking the thread, but this seemed like the right place to ask :)

On my car (05/71 240z) only the low beams work. Flipping the high/low switch does not make any difference.

I’ve removed the switch from the column but haven’t opened it. It’s still connected. When measuring the voltage between the black and the red/yellow, it shows around 12V. When measuring between black and red/white, it shows 0V. This is consistent also when pushing the switch multiple times. I guess this means the switch is broken?

I’m confused though, because when checking the continuity between black and RY, and black and RW, there seems to be continuity between both. This is when using the voltmeter in continuity (sound signal) mode. Is this normal behaviour?

If the switch turns out to be broken and unrepairable, do you know of anyone selling new or NOS switches?

I opened my switch, and one problem is that it doesn’t toggle. When I depress it, it moves to the other position, but jumps back when I let go. It’s supposed to stay in its position until the next time it is depressed, right?

Not sure why there was continuity on both poles, but the inside was pretty clean so I doubt that dirt was the cause.

That litte metal thing that almost looks like a screw. Where was it located?

@Nils Ya, when you press the switch it's supposed to flip into the other position. It sounds like you have a similar issue to what I had originally: I could depress the toggle, it would temporarily switch to the other side, but once I released the switch it would reset back to the original position. Yours sounds a little worse as it isn't even able to temporarily switch.

I forget which colors correspond to which, but power comes in through the center connection, and then goes out through the connections on the left or right - one for high beam, one for low beam. Ie, we'll just call the connections 1, 2, and 3, with 1 being high, 2 being the center, and 3 being low. 1-2 would trigger high beams, and 2-3 would trigger low beams. You can test that with continuity. You should never have continuity between 1 and 3.

@fredrick that's a spring and a brass cap. It sits in a circular opening in a rocker inside the actual switch housing. The piece is held into the plastic via a roll-pin and is the only part I didn't remove when disassembling the whole thing (I didn't think there was a chance I get it out without it breaking. It's the second picture in the first post

This whole setup is quite finicky and I've thought a few times about trying to engineer some kind of replacement, but not sure if the interest would justify it.

Edited July 21Jul 21 by hotsho111

On 9/20/2023 at 8:53 AM, jfa.series1 said:

Unfortunately for you, the switch will never work correctly as long as the board that the wires are soldered to is broken. Pressure on the diamond-shaped rocker to press against the contacts on the board is always going move the board section out of position. Perhaps you can find a donor turn signal switch with the high/low beam switch intact and swap it out. The beam switch is the same for all S30's. I checked my partZ box, don't have one to offer.

NECROPOST ALERT!!!!!!!!!

A broken hi- lo beam switch housing circuit board CAN be repaired so it will work correctly without the switch butterfly moving out of position between switch plunger detents.

One just needs a steady hand and more importantly, a command of various epoxies and repairing compounds available retail to ascertain what is most apropos for your situation.

Also, depending on the severity of the circuit board damage, the repair may necessitate making the circuit unremovable from the housing.

It's a Datsun. there is always a way...

Edited 54 minutes ago54 min by dpar