I picked up an Ally and the key switch seemed to be "iffy"..
Sometimes when I would turn it to "on" the lights would not come on
and I would wiggle the key to go.
I finally decided to take the key switch off and open it up to see
what I would find.
The switch is easily removed and opened. Take your battery off
first as you have live juice on two wires. You can get to it by
removing the ring nut (your Cagiva key covers it) and the one screw
that holds the triple cover down.
mark the wires. There are three wires and one has a double head.
The switch has numbers on the bottom, I think they are 16, 50 and
31. The 16 is the double-head wire and has the juice. Mark the
wires for 50 and 31 with tape or write it down. It's not horrible
if you forget, just remember that the holes marked 16 are the double
headed wire.
Now you've got the key switch off and you are almost there. Using a
needle nose pliers, gently bend the three tabs on the bottom so they
are straight. This is not fragile, but don't strong arm them. They
are NOT likely to break if you are careful and make sure to bend the
tab along the length.
The bottom plate is what the tabs hold -- it is not attached
otherwise and can come right out. The rest of the switch can slide
out.
I used WD40 to blast out the key slot and then brake cleaner to get
the WD40 out. It removed a LOT of crud. Put a small amount of
graphite powder in after it has dried
The bottom plate is the big bugbear. On mine, the contact for the
parking lights was burned out. Plus, the previous owner had
continually put WD40 into the key switch so there was about 1 KG of
sludge in the lock!!
I put it in a sonic cleaner (the whole thing) with a mild degreaser
solution (water based). It cleaned up really nicely and I used
solder to create a new contact for the parking light and fine
sandpaper to smooth the surface of the new contact.
After letting it all dry and making sure it turned properly and made
contact (with a multitester) I put it all back together with a light
grease inside the body (as spec, one dot of lithium grease on the
outside).
Now, it turns beautifully and never do the lights not turn on!
I also had new keys made from the lock key code, but unfortuneately,
they are plain-head and not the Cagiva head...
I can post pics of another lock I am cleaning up soon..
izaak
