camping in southern Midlands Tasmania near Hobart

I have found a great site for camping on my farm in southern Midlands, one hour drive from Hobart it is on the top of the hill with privacy and good views, There is mobile service for telstra, however there is no other services, no toilets, no water, no electricity and only accessible by a good 4X4 or by foot.  There is no shortage of dry wood for a camp fire, in the middle of a cold winters night.

$15 per person per night
$12 per person per night for group booking of 6+

Mazda bravo B2500, Ford courier ignition switch repair

Today I repaired the ignition switch out of my Mazda Bravo B2500 / ford courier. When I turned the key to engage the starting motor, nothing would happen sometimes it would take ten to fifteen turns of the key to start the car. 

 This job took me around three hours to complete, after I finished the starter motor never fails to energize.

The first thing to do is to take the plastic cover off the control column.  you do this by taking the key out of the ignition switch and removing three screws, they are clipped together so you will need to pry them apart with a flat screwdriver

Pull the cables out by pressing the clip and then wiggle it as you are pulling, these can be difficult sometimes if you can not push the clip in all the way.  After the cables are out of the way then start undoing the screw with a small phillips head screwdriver.  The switch component should almost fall out.

Dismantle by releasing one of the three clips on the black body out of the white cup, there is two clips on one side and one on the other.  Release the clip on the side that only has one first with the flat screwdriver and the switch should come apart easily.

Caution

there is two balls and seven springs in this switch, lose any one of them and your buggered

I cleaned the parts with dish soap, a tooth brush and a green green scouring pad under running tap.  Use the green scouring pad to make the copper contacts shiny.  Then pop it all in a sunny spot to dry or cheat with an oven at around 50'C for half an hour

Grab a drill with a small drill bit and clean the spot where the switch has been burning, be careful though, you don't want a big hole.

You may notice the location tab on the large contact ring has solder on it, this was a test run to see how well the solder would stick to the copper.

Use a gas torch to heat the contact rings just enough to melt the solder, and touch them with the solder where the holes are, try not to use to much solder as you will need to file the excess away later

 

Start to file away the excess solder, take your time with this step as you don't want to go to far and file the copper away






LOOKING GOOD

Now the messy part GREASE...

lightly coat all parts with grease and put some in the spring holes to hold the springs in place while you are rebuilding the switch, also put a good amount of grease in the holes that hold the balls to assist reassembly

(to hold your balls in place) 

One of my balls stuck to the grease

coming together







Reassemble and fit back in the car



Done

THE TOOLS

Gas torch

Rag/Cloth

Battery drill

Round and flat file

Phillips screwdriver

Flat screwdriver

Soldering iron

Solder

Solder wick

Thumb driver

Cotton bud stick

Glasses

Bearing Grease

Thanks for reading my post.

Please let me know if this Worked for you 

James