40 year old European headlight switch

oilcan93

oilcan93

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I took the coupe out for a spin the other evening. As I was pulling in I decided to adjust the brightness of the gauge lighting at which point the light switch just went "limp" and the bottom fell out onto the floor. Well, that's not good.....I wonder how hard it will be to find the headlight switch for a 40 year old European version of a German car? Apparently, pretty difficult. I and some of the gentlemen on here have been looking for #61311353051 or #61311353769 for a bit to no avail. Well, actually I did have ONE report of a unit available. But at $300, I'm trying to explore other options first. One very reputable guy will sell me a different switch altogether along with the plug side and pigtail for around half the "real" switch. All that remains to be done is splice the wires into my own harness which could be easy OR the color codes may not match so some detective work could have to be done. That is beyond my capabilities so if I go that route, I may again seek the counsel of the all the experts we are lucky enough to have access to here to get it correctly installed. So, if nobody has any leads on the two "real" parts, does the option of adding the plug/pigtail of an altogether different switch sound like the most viable option? However, if anyone has a stash and would care to sell a switch or knows of somewhere to pick one up, I"ll definitely take you up on it. And thanks
 
Thanks, Chris. We tried them. I ordered it from Tompkinson after some searching by a friend. This is the email I had back this morning: Carl, The item you ordered has been discontinued by BMW and is no longer available. The order will be cancelled and the hold on your funds released. Thank you. I appreciate the input. If you think of anything else, I'm all ears too.
 
What exactly is broken? Did the case come apart or ?? I rebuilt mine, if you have all the parts they can be cleaned, regreased where applicable, and the case glued back together then zip tied for good measure.
 
The bottom fell out of the switch while it was still mounted along with a couple of the contact plates. I did keep all of the parts but I'm not sure how to assemble it correctly since the plates fell out before I could see the baseline. Sending the two contacts and the switch itself out to someone who knows how these are to be refurbished is a last ditch effort. But it's a possibility I haven't ruled out.
 
Here are the only 2 pics I have of when I did mine, perhaps they can help:

IMG-20101214-00072.jpg


IMG-20101214-00071.jpg
 
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Is this the headlight switch with dimmer? I would think a good used unit is available and they should fit from other BMW models ie e3 & 2002.

Although maybe not an exact fit, I am looking at an extra light switch from my 2002 and it looks similar to the e9--not sure about the wiring however...

Good luck with your search...

MF
 
ebay Germany

You can buy these sometimes on ebay germany in used condition. They are often in a price range from 20,- to 40,- Euro. Maybe that`s an option for you.

Birger
 
Oilcan93 - if you are still having this problem, I may be able to help. I just pulled my switch apart, cleaned it up and put it back together. The plate shown in the first of Stevehoses' pictures is held to the rest of the assembly by denting small metal tabs at all four corners.

The switch is basically divided into two sectors. At the back is the rheostat assembly for dimming the interior lights. There is a ring assembly with two small springs that must be oriented around the plastic bushing that rides on a flat spot on the center rod. This ring makes contact along the curly spring in the ring assembly and a fixed round plate, changing the resistance and varying the brightness of the lights. you can see the brass ring and one of the two springs in the picture. Orient the ring with the two springs on the bushing And the small bumps on the curly spring and the fixed plate. This stuff is separated from the rest of the switch and held in place by a small metal plate. With the ring/bushing assembly oriented, push the metal plate in place, hold it together and slide it into the switch case. The case should hold it together once it is in.

Next insert the rod and switch handle.

The rest of the switch consists of three contacts that sit on a block, and the block sits into a notch on the rod connected to the handle. This block slides out as you pull the handle.

On the opposite side of the block there are two small white plastic detents that press into the two openings on the bottom of the block. Springs in the openings push the detents into depressions in the casing, holding the rod and handle in the parking light on and headlight on positions. These go in first, flip the block over, and make sure the contacts are oriented as in the picture. Install the block into the notch in the rod.

The plastic top plate goes on last. The top plate must sit into the case far enough to allow indentations in the corners to hold the plate. I used a brass punch on a slight angle and a gentle tap to bend these. Be gentle, it doesn't take much. Hope this helps.

In the pictures above, there are also indentations in the side of the switch housing. I did not have these. One more thing from the picture; if I were trying to assemble that particular switch, I would bend out the side indentations along with the corner indentations at three of the corners. Without doing that, it would be very hard to insert the bottom plate into the case fully.
 
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I think I broke the corners off the plastic piece when taking it apart (visible in the pic) so the indents weren't going to hold it together. I ended up using epoxy and 2 well-situated zipties to hold to together, an option if yours breaks upon removal. Has held up so far. If I were doing this again I'd be more careful like Ohmess.
 
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