Well I made a thread several months ago complaining that my switch often malfunctioned requiring several pushes to turn off and on, or just not working at all some days. The thread got a fair amount of attention of people experiencing the same issues or suspected lights burning out. Well I thought I would share with you how I solved these issues for less than $2 dollars. Now yes you can buy a new button on the cheap but for those of you with extra time on your hands or just really don’t want to buy a new part when you don’t need to, I took some photos that will help you do the entire project in less than 10 minutes.
All you need is a small flat head, the new bulb which I got at Radioshack/ Micro Lamp #7129 and a pair of snips.
Use your flat head to pop out the shift bezel. There is plenty of room to manipulate this to access the button. If you want to fully remove it, you have to first take off your shift knob.
Push the two metal tabs (top and bottom) in. These lock the switch in place on the bezel. As you compress them, push the switch towards the interior of the car.
Take your flat head and gently lift up on the two tabs of the connector to separate.
This is an image of the unit removed. Notice the black and blue nodes, those are the light housings. When pull the switching assembly apart, these will catch on the case, make sure you gently manipulate the case with your flat head to clear them. To separate it from the case, lift the case from the tabs on the unit. There are two on each side.
This is the unit without the case. As you can see it’s actually very simple. It uses three springs to operate the switch and button to turn on/off traction
Now I was having problems with my switch consistently engaging. It because my center spring was super compressed so it was not always hitting the small switch. To fix this I simply stretched the spring so contact to the switch was made sooner and more firmly.
The traction light itself is the smaller black housing. Using your small flat head twist the unit ¼ turn counter clockwise to release
The bulb feeds its leads down the center and the makes a U shape on either end which makes contact with the circuit board. Simply pop them off and pull the bulb out. Also notice the yellow sock, it makes your light orange. New socks could be used to change the color as the writing on the switch cover is clear.
The leads on the new bulb are much longer. Feed them through the center and re-wrap them. Use the snips to clip off the extra.
Re-install the unit together, making sure the switch cover is orientated the correct direction. When installing the unit back into the shifter bezel, there is a small guide on the left side. This means it only goes in one way so if you get it wrong you will be taking it all back apart
The new light is nice and bright. It looks really good.
All you need is a small flat head, the new bulb which I got at Radioshack/ Micro Lamp #7129 and a pair of snips.
Use your flat head to pop out the shift bezel. There is plenty of room to manipulate this to access the button. If you want to fully remove it, you have to first take off your shift knob.
Push the two metal tabs (top and bottom) in. These lock the switch in place on the bezel. As you compress them, push the switch towards the interior of the car.
Take your flat head and gently lift up on the two tabs of the connector to separate.
This is an image of the unit removed. Notice the black and blue nodes, those are the light housings. When pull the switching assembly apart, these will catch on the case, make sure you gently manipulate the case with your flat head to clear them. To separate it from the case, lift the case from the tabs on the unit. There are two on each side.
This is the unit without the case. As you can see it’s actually very simple. It uses three springs to operate the switch and button to turn on/off traction
Now I was having problems with my switch consistently engaging. It because my center spring was super compressed so it was not always hitting the small switch. To fix this I simply stretched the spring so contact to the switch was made sooner and more firmly.
The traction light itself is the smaller black housing. Using your small flat head twist the unit ¼ turn counter clockwise to release
The bulb feeds its leads down the center and the makes a U shape on either end which makes contact with the circuit board. Simply pop them off and pull the bulb out. Also notice the yellow sock, it makes your light orange. New socks could be used to change the color as the writing on the switch cover is clear.
The leads on the new bulb are much longer. Feed them through the center and re-wrap them. Use the snips to clip off the extra.
Re-install the unit together, making sure the switch cover is orientated the correct direction. When installing the unit back into the shifter bezel, there is a small guide on the left side. This means it only goes in one way so if you get it wrong you will be taking it all back apart
The new light is nice and bright. It looks really good.
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