Packard Forum Index » General

In past there have been pictures of various heater, headlight and other rheostat switches posted with the ceramic element support material gone and elements dangling. I had questioned the possibility of a ceramic cement material possibly being found & used to repair these.

Since I had some switches in that condition and found more in my AC repro project in need of attention, decided to see how the material would work. I can say it seems to work very well so far. Have repaired a few, tried them electrically and all is good. Mechanically, all now seems secure. I probably went a little heavy on one of the heater switches shown. The elements seemed vulnerable being suspended on fairly small wires so added a bit. Also couldn't tell exactly what had been there before and if you mix too thin, the stuff runs and is messy. Because of the coil spacing & supports, the AC rheostat was a bit hard to work the material in so added extra there too. Of course, time will tell how it does but a good initial first impression.

The material is Autocrete available from Flexbar Corp directly or also available from them and others thru Amazon.flexbar.com/shop/pc/AUTOCRETE-1LB-JAR-82p4026.htm It is a powder to be mixed with water at time of use so should have a decent shelf life. That is good because 1 lb is the smallest size available and a little goes a looooooooooong way. I probably used 4 or 5 tablespoons here including mistakes and excess mixed and thrown away.

Attach file:

---

  (37.01 KB)


  (24.40 KB)


  (36.84 KB)

Nice work Howard!