Cleaning and Servicing 14 Degree Source 4's

[cdub260]

Yesterday I cleaned and serviced a 14 degree Source 4 for the first time. Getting the front lens off in order to clean the lenses is a major pain! The rubber bumpers that hold the lens in place did not survive the removal process. I had to pry them off to get to the nuts inside. Granted, if I'd been able to find my bent nose pliers, I might have been able to remove them intact. Fortunately, these are commonly available parts and I have plenty of spares on hand. Cleaning the lenses and reassembling the lens tube was fairly easy.

Just make sure you have spare rubber bumpers on hand before you remove the lens and the cleaning will go just fine.

 

[josh88]

I may be crazy because I don't work with 14's very often but I think the last time I cleaned a bunch the screws and nuts had been reversed for that exact reason. The screw head was in the rubber washer and the nut was on the outside of the unit so you could take a little screw driver and easily get to it all. Someone in their past must have had a similar experience and made the change to all the barrels in stock.

 

[cdub260]

I only have two of them in my inventory, so this is more in the minor annoyance category rather than a major problem. Still, turning the screws around might be something to think about when I do next year's maintenance on these two lights.