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Date: 16 Dec 2002 20:42:27 -0800
From: bstolzernopsami.com (brad)
Subject: Re: Replacing Interior Cabin Light Switch on classic 900; Must I Remove the Console?


Wow! Thanks!! Thank you Grunff- Nothing like fast, highly accurate, useful information, free. It's really great to have this information available. I'll try to repay my gratitude in part by contributing whatever I learn. Maybe someone else will need to make this repair. For the benefit of the group, I followed Grunff's advice and it worked perfectly. Here's alot more detail: 1. I used my smallest flat bladed screwdriver and gently pried around the perimeter of the switch, searching for the separation point. It was easy and obvious that there is a thin bezel around the switch, and just below this it "lifts off" from the underlying plastic of the console. 2. The switch is held in the console only by small, springy plastic tabs at the top and bottom. The switch comes out easily and without damage by gently working your way around with your prying tool and just lifting it out. 3. Once the switch comes out, you see that it is attached to its wires with a simple plastic plug. The plug is the terminus of the car wires, and is the female end. It slides over three copper tabs which stick out of the back of the switch housing. Once you slide off the plug, you are left with the rocker switch in your hand, still within its switch housing. 4. I brought the switch housing over to my workbench, where, for the first time, I could see it well, and analyzed the way the rocker switch operates. I could now see that the rocker itself is held in the housing only by its 2 pivot points. By inserting an even smaller screwdriver between the switch and the housing, you can gently widen the housing enough to "pop" the rocker out of the pivot point of the housing, first on one side, then the other. The rocker switch itself will now come out in your hand, with the housing in your other hand. 5. I saw that the back of the rocker contained a thin metal plate, with three prongs. The interior of the switch housing was nasty, gnarly, and wet. The metal plate on the back of the rocker, and the three corresponding metal contact points on the back, inside surface of the switch housing, were copper, but the copper was kind of goopy and corroded. 6. I sprayed the above interior parts with a liberal shot of WD-40, then took an abrasive pad and gently cleaned off all the metal contact points, as well as the surrounding plastic. Then I gave these parts a light spritz of silicone, and then re-assembled the switch. It's a very simple part and re-assembly is literally a snap. 7. Then I plugged the re-assembled housing containing the switch back into the plug, expecting it to be fixed. 8. Now, the #1 position (lights on when doors open) worked, as it had before, and the "middle" position worked (ie, now I could turn the lights off, even with the door open), which it had not before. However, the #2 position with the rocker switch all the way forward, which would allow you to turn on the lights even with the door closed (a very useful position), still did not work. Dissappointed, I pulled the plug, and dissassembled the switch once more. 9. Now I noticed that, of the three copper contact points on the inside back surface of the switch housing, the one on the right, which had been most badly corroded, is "sunk" below the surface of the interior switch housing,so it probably isn't making contact with the metal plate with three prongs on the back of the rocker itself. Easy solution: I just bent the corresponding prong on the back of the rocker. 10. Reassembled the switch once more. It works perfectly, all three positions. Many thanks. I'll put up a more general post about my "new" car and my first weeks as a Saab owner tomorrow. Brad Grunff <grunffnopsam.com> wrote in message news:<atl3kd$66to$1nopsam52899.news.dfncis.de>... > brad wrote: > > Hello Everyone, > > Hi Brad. > > > 1. Do I need to remove the console? If not, how do you remove the > > switch? And... > > Hell no. Just lever the switch out with a fine screwdriver > blade. Easy. > > Once you have it out, it's very easy to dismantle it, clean it, > oil it, and put it back together. No need for a new one. > > > 2. If I need to remove the console, how do you remove the shift boot? > > Just grab one of the edges and pull.

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