I have repaired these before and usually had to look all over the shop floor for little balls and springs, well not this time.
The switch is not broken, only dried out lubrication.
So I revitalized the switch lube with a quick shot of WD40 under the rocker. Waited a few minutes then work the switch back and forth till smooth and like new. Time to do all four, about 10 minutes.
Another The Easy Fix from the gears.

__________________
1984 300SD turbo 126
"My true love"

God made me an atheist and who am I to question His wisdom

that fix works great for old switches that have dried lube, but they will quickly dry out again. you should pull the switches. spread out a large white towel and gently open them up. rinse out the switches, and replace the electrical grease.
the #1 reason these switches fail is soda/tea dried up inside them...

__________________
John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!

My drivers:
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!!

1987 300TD
1987 300TD
1994GMC 2500 6.5Turbo truck... I had to put the ladder somewhere!

On my daughter's '94 she spilled a drink on the console switches, made them cruddy and sticky.

I felt that a solvent (WD-40 is more solvent than lubricant) would simply remove the grease in the switches so, ...

I removed the switches, ran each one under warm water. Then I shook them to remove most of the water, fairly gently blew them out with compressed air, they worked GREAT after that with all of their original lube still in place.

__________________

Gone to the dark side

- Jeff

same for me.
on my 87 wagon, my wife CONSTANTLY sets down her large McDee Sweet Tea in the center tray... then steps on the brakes... and of course a quart of sweet tea dumped into the center buttons, shifter, and footwell does wonders for all manner of oddities in the car...
that huge mirror adjust switch just funnels the goop inside. couldn't adjust the mirror to save my life.
open it up, rinse it off, poof good as new.






...


oh, and I bolted in a cup holder in the center tray now...

__________________
John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!

My drivers:
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!!

1987 300TD
1987 300TD
1994GMC 2500 6.5Turbo truck... I had to put the ladder somewhere!

--really hot soapy water, let it soak awhile and blasted it with more hot water, then repeated. You would not believe how much crud came out of that switch!

I turned it upside down on a paper towel all night to dry, lubed with light machine oil and it's good as new.

Old W123 switchgear is fantastic stuff.

__________________
Nate Stanley
(Currently Benzless)
1985 F-250 6.9l 170K
2009 SCION XB 36.5K
2003 LS430 78K
2012 Kubota B 2320

I thought I had come up with a spectacular fix, oh well.
I had not thought of any of those cures. Will try the water thing next time.
Thanks.

__________________
1984 300SD turbo 126
"My true love"

God made me an atheist and who am I to question His wisdom

I think you can leave the switch in place, pop the rocker off and get to the guts. Use tweezers to lift the parts and dirt out and wipe cavity and contacts clean with tweezers and cloth dipped in solvent, lube and re-assemble.

__________________
85 300D turbo pristine w 157k when purchased 161K now
83 300 D turbo 297K runs great. SOLD!
83 240D 4 spd manual- parted out then junked