Door Jamb Switch Restoration

Have you thrown away parts because "they're cheap" or because you thought they were no longer useful or work cleaning? I just wanted to let everyone know as a PSA that restoring these door jamb switches are insanely easy. Mainly because of how dumb the switches are. No complications at all. Just a spring, sheet metal, rod, nut, and plastic. I was able to restore these to look practically new by soaking them in Evapo-Rust for a day or two (which I've only been able to find in person at Harbor Freight) and then getting some Fast Orange and a tooth brush and getting the chunks off1. I use that stuff to restore bicycle parts and it worked like magic on these switches. I wish I took before and after pictures.

I also recorded all the steps to disassemble and rebuild the light switch assuming the ceramic rheostat isn't broken. If there's enough interest I can do a small write-up with pictures for just about every step.

Replacements are available from Ron Fancies .. If needed ..

You can also get them from American Autowire. For $11/each I would have a hard time messing with an old one.

The only problem about buying new switches from what I gathered were the length of the actual switch or the threads not fitting the hole. In some instances they seemed to be too long for the door to close properly or were not the right size for the preexisting hole in the body. I didn't want to drill a new hole out or weld a bolt in. I wanted to ensure I had a proper fitting so I found it best to just restore these. Since I'm going more of the restoration route anyways this was especially best for me. I also didn't want to deal with the back and forth of buying/testing/returning (instore and much less online purchases).

The reason for this thread was to show that buying new switches may likely not be necessary. I think a small container of Evapo-Rust is less than one of the switches posted on this thread. If they're intact coming out of the body, it will be too easy to clean them instead of going to store or waiting for online orders. After all, the best fits are the OEM. I can't see how you can even upgrade these switches if you wanted to.

I purchased two jam switches a few months back and one was DOA. I bought a second, but the threads were too small for the door. I ended up taking apart the DOA and the new and frankensteining them into one that worked