A700 Tub Light Switch Repaired

[d-jones]

I’ve been gradually going through my Maytag YA700 cleaning and fixing problems as I come across them. Well, recently I had the top panel tilted back to clean the tub cover and I went ahead and replaced the bulb in the tub light socket. I was thrilled to see the darn thing working again, and then quickly disappointed to find it wouldn’t shut off. As long as the machine was plugged in, the bulb was on. The culprit, as it turns out, was the panel mounted light switch, a Gaynor 1055 that is long out of production. Having searched through the archives for a solution and come up empty handed, I thought I’d open her up and see if anything could be done for it. My switch had a crack in the cover that ran right through the rivet in the center, so opening it up was not much of a problem. Here’s what I found.

The white rotating plastic piece at the center of the switch has a little plastic spring molded onto it that cracked near its base after sitting compressed for too many years. It’s plainly visible in the photo. Right after I took this picture it fell completely off, so apparently the only reason it was still in place at all was force of habit.

 

[d-jones]

Anyways, to fix this switch all that’s needed is something to replace the slight force applied by the now missing spring. I used a small piece of vinyl tubing placed upright with the lower end tucked into a small pocket conveniently located at the bottom of the switch housing. It’s fairly well captured here so I doubt it will move from this spot even with the most unbalanced loads.

 

[d-jones]

Here's the switch partially reassembled so you can see how the little piece of tubing is captured

 

[d-jones]

With the switch reassembled I checked it out with an ohm meter and found it to be working as it should. Now when I push the red button I’m treated to the sound of the black button snapping up into place when it’s released by the little plastic cam. I don’t expect this to be a permanent repair, but it’ll do for now until I can devise something better. I’m thinking the tail end of a small zip tie fixed in place at the proper angle should do the trick nicely, as very little pressure is required to move the cam.

 

[d-jones]

Here you can see the black button hunkered down as it’s captured by the cam in the off position. This was a rather simple repair, so I'd imagine most of the folks on this blog could handle it easily.

 

[gansky1]

Brilliant repair! The vinyl tubing was a great idea. 

 

These switches are more than disheartening to find broken, the one in my Maytag combo is attached to the removable panel behind the control fascia and after a lifetime of service, it had broken apart from being yanked along with the wires.  I was able to glue it back together and it works, but have since amassed a few extra switches from parts-donor Maytags. 

 

I've noticed some vintage metal-base florescent desk lamps used a suspiciously similar looking switch but have never bought one to open it up and see for sure.

 

 

 

[d-jones]

Thanks Gansky!

I love it when a part can be repaired rather than replaced, especially when replacement parts are hard to find. But in searching around the internet trying to do just that, I've learned that the 1055 switch came in a vast array of variants and I wouldn't be surprised at all to find them in fluorescent desk lamps. By the way, since you have spares you may want to check the position of the black button. When it's up, the little plastic spring is compressed. When the button is compressed, the plastic spring is relaxed, which means that even a NOS switch, stored too long in the wrong position could end up with a broken spring.

Here's a cheesy drawing showing how the spring rides above the buttons shoulder while in the off position. When the red button is pushed, the cam rotates slightly releasing the black button which snaps up. The cam then comes to rest on the buttons lower shoulder which is the widest part of the button. This is a very bad position for it to be in for months on end. ;-)

 

[d-jones]

"Here's a cheesy drawing showing how the spring rides above the buttons shoulder while in the off position."

Sorry, that should say "how the cam rides above the buttons shoulder".

 

[pdub]

I'm impressed...

and I don't think your drawing is cheesy at all!

It looks very professional. Congratulations

Patrick

 

[badgerdx]

I agree with Patrick... it reminds me of my Dad's highschool drafting class papers ... (remember drafting class? I don't...before my time, but my father STILL has the most beautifully legible and stylish block printing I've ever seen.) I love schematic and drafted illustrations. They're wonderful. Thanks for sharing.

 

[gansky1]

That is a wonderful drawing!

I'll have to check the switches, I'm sure they're all in the wrong position LOL - but a great tip for keeping them good.

 

[mayken4now]

Nice

Very nice fix. What a brilliant idea! My mind works like that as well. I can usually come up with someting if I am so driven to do so.

 

[revvinkevin]

A "cheesy drawing"?

 

 

Oh come on Dave,  Credit where credit is due, it's far from cheesy and you know it!   You're a fantistic illustrator, I know it, your wife knows it and you know it!

 

And fantastic job repairing the light switch!   I will be bringing all of my switches up for you to go through soon!  

 

Kevin

 

[d-jones]

All right everyone, thanks for all the compliments, and I’m glad you all liked the little drawing, but let me explain. The reason I called it "cheesy" is that I'm not happy with it. I sat down for an hour to work on it the other night because I found the switch interesting and thought that a simple drawing of its inner workings would be a relaxing diversion from my other drawings. I had decided to omit the two metal springs under the moving contacts for clarity, but by the time I got as far as I did, I realized I should have partially cut the front side of the switch body away instead, and left the two springs in. Since the drawing really served no purpose other than my own entertainment, and the thought of extensively reworking it wasn't very entertaining, I decided not to finish it. But in the end, I found a use for it after all, and now it's posted here for posterity. So let's hear it for practically pointless isometric projections posted for posterity! Yay!

As for the switch repair, I know quite a few folks on this blog have machines with these switches installed, so it was a pleasure to be able to share a simple fix for such an annoying problem. The switches really are pretty sturdy for the most part. That plastic spring is their Achilles heal, and with such a simple fix available for them, there's little reason they can't continue in service for the life of the machine. As I mentioned above, my switch cover was conveniently cracked through the center rivet hole, so disassembly was rather easy. But if your cover isn't cracked and you'd like to keep it that way, the hardest part of the repair will be unflaring the rivet so that the cover can be removed. This will need to be done with care so that it can be flared again upon reassemly, though some may choose to simply drill the rivet out and be done with it. Since the switch body could be glued together so easily, this may end up being the preferred method. If you choose the glue route, try to find one that will allow the parts to be separated again in case you should need to get back in there in the future(you never know), and keep in mind that the cover will be firmly held in place by the mount screw once the switch is installed in the control panel. Thanks again for the compliments. I'm just glad I was able to share a tip that some will be able to use.