jfa.series1

Captain - You are on target with the point of breakage. In going thru these units, I determined that the deciding factor has been the amount of weather exposure that resulted in deterioration of the exposed handle portion of the entire toggle. It is similar to the breakdown of the nylon insulators found on the fuel rails. My car has always been garaged, not a bit of breakdown on any of these bits. I suspect it would be every bit as difficult to turn out a replacement handle as it would be to turn a complete unit and as you point out, a tricky process to drill a receiving hole in the ball. As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, the metal bat is a bit larger in diameter but properly finished it might be difficult to spot by show judges. Heck, it would only count in the ZCCA Stock class anyway. I hope to have a prototype ready soon.

Today's mind-numbing exercise: servicing 18 switches with disassembly, cleaning, burnishing the contacts, dielectric grease, assembly. About 3 hours for 18 units. Two others in the batch have broken toggles and will get the new metal toggle replacement switches.

You are on target. Per Carl Beck's site, there were approximately 20,500 cars produced into late January 1971 with the flow-thru ventilation exiting via the hatch vents. Beginning in February with VIN 21,000 the flow-thru vent outlet was moved to the C-pillar / sail panel. That was a hard change and as HS30-H stated, everything else was a matter of what parts were available to the assembly line.

I might as well chime in with my dash discovery

Thanks. Perhaps you could count the number of coils on a front spring for me, OE is 10 turns from the tip of the wire to the other tip. No rush on this.

I'm not particularly satisfied with my car's ride quality with Tokico HP shocks and Eibach Progressive springs. I have the new KONI's in hand and a set of OE spirngs and DO want to get the car lowered a bit more than it's current setting. I'm thinking that with stock springs and the KONI's I can more easily tune the the ride quality. Any comments on cutting the OE springs would be welcomed.

Unless you just want to own a set of spring compressors, check with your local auto supply such as Auto Zone or O'Reilly's that have tools to loan at no cost. If the last set of shocks was installed into the strut without some oil, you may find they have become rust welded to the inside of the tube.

I think we have a winner! Here is the new switch installed in a light body, pictured with a NOS unit for comparison. No interference inside when installing the switch. The bat (toggle) is larger and the bushing extends further out of the body. The exposed bushing length can be adjusted as there is a hex nut inside the body for that purpose and one outside to lock it in place. I plan to have the hex nuts yellow zinc plated and will paint one of the switches to more closely resemble OE. Stay tuned to this station for continuing updates.

I went thru this frustrating exercise years ago. With no one around to assist I found it impossible to both get the assembly pushed back into the body and get the screws in place to lock it down. My solution was to create "extra hands" with a ratcheting tie-down strap. I installed a large hook in the base plate of the garage wall and positioned the car with the rear towards the hook. A length of stout rope was attached to the hook. One end of the strap was attached to the rope, the strap passed into the car via the open hatch, around the front of the quarter window and back to the rope for a second attachment. The rope allowed for a shallow angle for the strap. Gentle ratcheting pulled the window into position and held it in place to get the screws installed. Loosen the strap, re-position the car, and repeat for the second window. Thankfully, no pictures exist of this particular McGyver moment. ?

Inspection Light 2.0 - go for it! ? Sign me: Anxiously awaiting your prototype.

Thanks again to @SteveJ for the link to DigiKey. Going thru their catalog I located this switch that has dimensions very close to OE. I've got 5 on order, will update this thread with fitment results when they arrive. https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/electroswitch/7105B/451-1156-ND/2679539

Thanks Steve. The threaded bushing needs to be 12mm to correctly fit the hole. Many of the smaller body switches are sub-mini's with a 1/4" (8.9mm) bushing. In a quick review I spotted a pre-wired switch that looks good, would eliminate soldering wires to a new switch - just use a small butt connector. Will get back to it later for more investigation.

The switches arrived today and are not a good fit for the housing. The 29.5mm dimension is too big to fit flush against the end of the tube. The OE switch is 23mm (0.9"). Now its off to the site recommended by @SteveJ to shop for a better fit.

That's on my list of to-do's.

Thanks for the link. Need a few replacements, I just ordered a group of five.

From grunge to glitter! Next up - Dremel wire brush to clean out all the insides, then wet sand final prep for handoff to the plater. I was pretty lucky with this group, only one body had a couple of dings and only one had any serious patina issues.

I have a grommet assortment box from Harbor Frieght, found a size that works well. I do open the center hole with a drill bit to handle the connectors. You probably don't have HF in Canada but likely a similar outlet.

@S30Driver - any recommendations?

Not to my knowledge. Our good friend @S30Driver has substituted modern switches with a metal toggle with success.

I pulled this nest of inspection lights out of the garage attic stash yesterday. By moving quickly, I was able to get them de-fanged before any harm was done! ?

The VIN on the BAT car is 4684 which puts it in the right range for the early style air filter. The OE metal fan on my car was a creamy white - not bright white.

Yes, I noticed the higher attach points on this shield when I had it, could never figure out why. The same goes for the unique fuel rail I have that has different mounting tangs and a much larger opening for the fuel return orfice.

A while back I picked up a large group of used parts that included several heat shields. One of them was unique in that it had no notch for the heat riser tube to the air filter (1st pic). In checking with some friends, I got a comment from Carl Beck suggesting that the heat riser was added somewhere around VIN 6,000. It was the heat riser feature that caused the air filter change for the butterfly flap. All the parts catalogs I've seen only show the heat riser version of the heat shield - one of those constant improvements in the production cycle. So... assuming Carl is correct on the VIN change, your car has the early version of the air filter. Check your heat shield to see if it has the notch.

Caught this video yesterday - parts nirvana!

Completely refurbished, PM if interested.