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Fixing the turn signal switch might not seem like a very
logical place to start my Budget Porsche project; after all, I had a long list
of things that needed attention before I dared “leave the county” or even
take a long drive. But start-small-and-learn-along-the-way, I thought, and
besides I needed the horn to work in order to pass our state’s safety
inspection. With a little electrical
troubleshooting, I found that the horn
contactor (a part of the turn signal switch) was missing. I might have been
able to fix that without opening up the switch body but I was this close and
the turn signal lever was noticeably difficult to flip for right turns. I
spotted a replacement switch on Ebay but thought, “vat da heck” I’d take
a crack at fixing my original before I threw the old one into the trash. Besides, it would be
good if I could start this "budget project" with a low-dollar fix. In my research (mostly looking through
conversations of other owners), it seems nobody has attempted to repair a turn
signal switch. Probably because they
have better things to with their time, but not me - I have "the
Budget Porsche" project. I guess if I could have found the switch cheaper,
but $45 seemed a high price for something that should
be repairable. Clearly the switch is not meant to be
repaired, at least not without
some pretty serious determination. The switch assembly is riveted together and one of the rivets is a unique combination of electrical pin and pop rivet. This sort of special little part is (I think) Porsche’s way of keeping people like me from making low-dollar fixes. They would probably say it is unsafe or some such, but I think it is just sort of their way of marking their territory. BTW, Honda of this same year (1985) uses simple screws to hold their switch body together.
I drilled the rivets shown in this picture and learned
that I should have inserted a small wire through the holes in the side of the
switch body to prevent a couple of springs from jumping out. In my past life
as a Navy technician, we would have referred to this box as having a high boink
factor - because when you open it up - boink! See the next picture for where I
should have put the retaining wire before I opened up the switch body. The above was actually taken a bit late in the overall process and does not show the turn signal canceling mechanism (it was removed temporarily). It also shows a partially repaired Horn contactor pin. That pin is the one that is a combination rivet and electrical pin. Below is how I repaired it, first by soldering a wire to the point where I had drilled. Remember, I had to drill the revit-type head off of this pin.
Below is a crude lathing operation to smooth up the pin after I soldered a short wire to it. This smoothing was needed to re-assemble the switch body
Next, I turned to the horn ring contactor, and fabricated one similar to the original using a brass strip that I got from the hardware store. The miter joints will be soldered, smoothed and a small hole drilled for the electrical pin wire.
Clamp up the body, install new pop rivets and prepare to solder the repaired electrical pin to the fabricated horn contactor.
Almost completed now, just a few adjustments to ensure the contactor can touch the horn contactor ring (on the steering wheel).
Turn Signal CancelingHere's an additional fix that I stumbled onto.
Above is a picture of the installed switch, the red arrow is pointing to the tang that gets bumped by the tab (seen in the other photo of the steering wheel). Look closely and you can see that the tab is wrapped in several layers of electrical tape. I did this same repair using aluminum tape. Ready for re-installation. Rivets - PN ACE 2014017 1/8th diameter 1/16 to 1/8 grip range
Expenses: Rivets $1.69 Brass strip $2.35 ---------------------------- $4.04 |
