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'98 model cracked plastic headlight switch cover?

amc49

Hard-core CEG'er
Joined
May 21, 2008
Messages
1,662
Any of the rest of you had trouble with the plastic headlight switch cover on '98 model dash repeat breaking in pieces? I've had 3 now, all keep cracking. I seem to have fixed it but takes some work.

The plastic is polystyrene like plastic models use and can be reglued with modelling liquid cement. You can brace it up on the backside using plastic flat stock from hobby shop as well, use a good amount of cement and hold the piece for maybe a minute and the cement will even melt the flat stock to conform to the switch cover perfectly for max adhesion and strength.

If the posts have broken you can use a drill bit sized to the core hole, glue it in, and then build up successively bigger and bigger using brass tubing from the hobby shop as well, epoxy the pieces together to make a new post and then cut to the required length with a dremel and cutting disc.

I also reglued the lower screw mount tabs on as well using same technique to fix cracks. Overlap the crack with flat stock, down there you can overlap both sides since out of sight. I then use rubber washers so not to have to tighten tight enough to break again and barely squeezing down on the rubber, the mounting screw is coated with silicone or 3M weatherstrip so it doesn't back off from vibration since not super tight.

The main cracking around headlight switch comes from heat warping the cover to crack because it's mounted to the switch, the mounting screws usually break the mounting posts up in pieces as well. Gluing up those posts will not help, they simply crack up again when screw is put back in. I remounted the switch in the dash itself rather than the cover which then simply mounts over the top of it. I drilled 3 holes in the metal flat deeper in the dash hole and ran 3 pieces of all thread up to double nut at the ends to hold the switch in place using original switch mounting holes. It can be moved in/out to match the hole in cover. When switch is mounted in dash the raised stands on back of cover have to be ground off to clear the stud ends. Not hard, they are usually almost broken off by then anyway.

After cracks fixed then use filler, sand and paint black again and part is good to go, looks new.

After doing all that the cover seems to have quit breaking, been like that for a year............and already reworked a second one from the breakups in case needed. I couldn't find virtually any at the junkyard, they are all taken already so a lot of them must break.
 
One of the repaired ones WAS new, it didn't last nearly as long as the original. Once the method was worked out it basically costs me the two drill bits that get sacrificed to stiffen the posts, about $3. The flat polystyrene stock I used was from prescription cards used to store pills in, I had like fifty of them stacked up to destroy personal info on them and hit on the fact they were the correct plastic.

My thinking is the switch being bolted to the inside of cover prevents the plastic from warping in/out as it wants to during temperature changes.

While I don't shy away from buying a new part that will last, I don't want to pay for a part that will simply end up like the last one did in short order. Priced too high for what I got out of it.
 
Unfortunately these parts arent made any more and the new one you bought may have been on the shelf for a long time. The knees may have alot to do with premature failure since I hit these usually getting in.
 
Here in Texas it routinely gets 140 degrees inside car on a hot day, I have had trouble with many plastic parts on late Fords. The plastic often crumbles to the touch, what the screw stands do on this cover. Several cracks from the screw stress and then they run deeper into the part itself. The domelight fixture did the same and had to rig it as well, same on Focus cars. The radio faceplate is horrible about it. The plastic is already biodegrading, take parts apart and the stress of it has them breaking up into little bits in your hands with no rough treatment at all.

You get the rust issues up there, here nonexistent but we get the heat issues.
 
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