Finally fixed my Mag-lite

Bret4207

Well-known Member
Over 20 years ago, when I was still a brand new, shiny, baby Trooper, all full of good intentions and the belief all people were fundamentally good and decent, I bought the largest D cell Mag lite I could find. Over the years both the flashlite and I took a lot of abuse. It eventually came to be known affectionately as "Thumper" and it served flawlessly and saved my bacon several times. The poor old thing (the flashlite, not me) eventually quit working. The other day I disassembled the unit, having to resort to a large set of Channel Locks and a pipe vise, and went at it with abrasives to remove a couple decades of oxidation and corrosion. As with any electrical device, grounds are key! I'm happy to say Thumper is back in working form and ready to give years more service. It's like having an old friend back.
 
Mag lites are great,just be sure to use good battery's,stay away from Ray-O-Vac,I've had more than one device ruined
by their battery's.
 
had a brand new Maglite in one of my cars that went into storage 11 years ago. Found it a couple of weeks ago when I got the car out to work on it. Had to drill the centers out of the batteries to get them out. Ended up using a wheel cylinder hone to do the final clean up on the interior walls. Lots of work for a $20 flashlight but I took it as a challenge. Cost me nothing but my time and two new D cells. Works like new now. Bill
 
Good story, trusted tool for illumination, size and weight, I can just imagine what else its been employed to do given the line of work involved.

Here's a link to what I consider a very bright and highly useful LED flashlight, I've had one for years, it goes everywhere with me, tractor tool box when running at night etc.

Nothing like it in my opinion, want to see clearly inside a tractor rear axle differential, or anything similar, horses mouth, hoof, anywhere you need a good bright light, these are really something. Need to illuminate something for a photo at night or even add this kind of light to make something visible in the photo, works well. It zooms in/out, you have 3 levels of light, so you can save power as needed, it strobes and it does S-O-S. The aluminum body is machined flat for adapting to hardware, to say mount on something like a rifle or what have you. Sure its from the land of almost right, I have not found an equivalent made elsewhere, though there is a G700 with similar specifications and features, I have not seen or tried one of those yet.

After a few years, dropped more than once, batteries kept charged, it works great, I need a few more, indispensable tool for sure.
MXDL SA T68
 
I had a friend who was a Bridgeport, CT cop. He swore by his Maglight. Said he could go into a situation and by leaving his
nitestick in his belt the perps were off guard. If they pulled something he would just crease their skull with the light. I
have several and converted them to LED. Last longer and the bulb won't go out from 'abuse'.
 

I can count the number of times I carried my stick on one hand. And we were clearly instructed that you never, ever hit anyone with a stick above the shoulder. Even back in those days we understood liability. If I'd ever smacked someone with Thumper in the head I'd probably still be in prison. This IS NY after all. Criminals have rights don'tchaknow! :lol:
 
How about down on the shoulder beside the head? I was told that was a ploy that removed the starch in the knees of the large and rowdy.
 
Seeing this thread reminded me I had one to fix also! The bottom battery was stuck so I drilled it and got a lag bolt in it and
pulled it out. Cleaned out the tube and put new batteries in it and it's good to go!
 
Carried a four cell maglite for close to ten years as a city cop. A few years before I quit, went to a poly
Streamlight. Guess I was getting old, appreciated the lighter weight.

Getting back into law enforcement, part-time. Got a new battery for the Streamlight, still works fine. Also
bought a Streamlight Stinger LED that I carry on my belt all the time.

The Stinger is 10x the light of the full size flashlight. Only reason I even bother with the big flashlight
is I'm not sure of the battery life is the Stinger. Once I'm more comfortable with the Stinger, the big
flashlight will probably stay in the car.
 

Being a rural cop the big light was better than the little belt light I carried simply because I could out a traffic cone on the big light. It always seemed 90% of the drivers going by any accident scene would willfully ignore a flashlight beam, but put a cone on the light and they got the idea of moving on.

Be careful out there. It's not the same world as it was 20 years ago.
 
(quoted from post at 10:53:33 11/16/15) Mag lites are great,just be sure to use good battery's,stay away from Ray-O-Vac,I've had more than one device ruined
by their battery's.
ay-O-Vac isn't alone! Those Mag Lites allow little clearance for battery swelling. I have had two Mag Lites with Dura Cell batteries so swollen that I had to drive them out with a big hammer & a half inch iron pipe. So tight that the pipe penetrated half way through the battery before they moved!!
 
That sure brings back a lot of good memories. I hit the street in 1973 and Maglite was not yet invented, but we had aircraft aluminum Kel-Lites (later merged with Streamlite in the 80s) that held 6 D cells. The entire body was knurled so you could swing either end and the knurling grabbed scalp and ripped it, which caused a very rough and painful wound. The light was anodized so blood did not hurt it, and over the 21 years I carried it, it saw action every week on one head or another (or several if I was riding the "right" part of the city). Wish I still had it! Those were good days...
 

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