Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Hello:

I bought a 4001.....and it showed up with a strange issue.

The 3-way toggle switch will only stay in the middle position. It will "work" in the up and down positions, in that the appropriate pickups are engaged, but the switch itself won't stay in an up or down position. It immediately pops back into the middle position, the moment you let go of it.

I've looked at the underside of the switch, and I didn't see anything odd.

Any ideas as to what's going on, and how I might fix it?

thanks -

Richard

Sir Ricardo wrote:Hello:

I bought a 4001.....and it showed up with a strange issue.

The 3-way toggle switch will only stay in the middle position. It will "work" in the up and down positions, in that the appropriate pickups are engaged, but the switch itself won't stay in an up or down position. It immediately pops back into the middle position, the moment you let go of it.

I've looked at the underside of the switch, and I didn't see anything odd.

Any ideas as to what's going on, and how I might fix it?

thanks -

Richard

Play with the tension of the blades. Use needle nose pliers. Move the switch and observe what is going on and then slightly bend the contacts until the switch stays where you want it.

I am not the tech here and there may be a better answer, but here's what I've done.

There should be a plastic "tip" on the bottom of the switch post that presses against the flanges to change PU selection. Gently pull on that plastic tip "down" so you are lengthening the post a bit. When you pull you might also try twisting it a bit to help it move along. I am talking a couple of millmeters of lengthening here. Then try flipping the switch and see if it "sticks" in the two other positions. It should stick once you get the length of the tip right.

EDIT: If that doesn't work, someone else (like John) will have a suggestion I'm sure.

John and Ron:

Thank you both for your excellent and timely ideas.

I went with Ron's idea first, since it seemed easier (to me) to implement as a first try......and it worked, with a twist. The twist is that the little plastic cap on the underside of the toggle switch was actually extended too far.....so it needed to be pushed into the toggle, thus shortening its overall length. Now it works perfectly.

thanks again, guys -

Richard

Well, I learned something today!

johnallg wrote:

Sir Ricardo wrote:Hello:

I bought a 4001.....and it showed up with a strange issue.

The 3-way toggle switch will only stay in the middle position. It will "work" in the up and down positions, in that the appropriate pickups are engaged, but the switch itself won't stay in an up or down position. It immediately pops back into the middle position, the moment you let go of it.

I've looked at the underside of the switch, and I didn't see anything odd.

Any ideas as to what's going on, and how I might fix it?

thanks -

Richard

Play with the tension of the blades. Use needle nose pliers. Move the switch and observe what is going on and then slightly bend the contacts until the switch stays where you want it.

that was like that on my 4003 when I got it. just bent the blades of the switch like John said