The metal case is "bent" in at the corners to keep the base and all the guts from falling out. The corner of a pair of plyers straightened that out in short order enough for the base to come out. Hold the unit together with your hand so it doesn't fly apart, that little spring is pretty strong. Here's a picture of the switch in it's disasembled state. the metal case is to the right and the phenolic base with it's wires is to the left. Notice the electrically burnt markings on the eight contact points. (if you want to know why there are eight contact points, see my next repair post on the "solenoid nut boxes") in the "Power seat elevator" thread.
As you can see, the "joy stick is on the far right. Remember, it pulls straight out, do not twist it. Just inside the switch body is a piece of cream colored phenolic material that the joy stick fits into. That's the piece you pulled the joy stick out of. Next is the spring that holds tension on the contact plate. Next is the square spacer that holds the contact plate off of the phenolic base. This fits over the next piece that sits directly over the center of the copper contact on the base. Here's another picture of the same parts after cleaning with a pencil eraser, that's all it takes to clean the contact points.
Now, let's look at the problem part, the piece that broke.
This is the piece the joy stick fits into. I wish I had taken another picture of it in it's broken state. Opposite the end where the joy stick enters, is a small "dowel" appendage about 1/4 inch long. In the picture, it looks to be about 1/2 that length. That's because it was broke off and I drilled a hole about 1/8 inch deep and stuck it in. A 1/8 inch drill bit caused the dowel part to fit so snugly, I could hardly get it back out. I had to though, after I put the switch back together, it didn't work. I pulled it back out and cut a nail (that's right, a nail) the correct length so after pushing it in the same hole, it stuck out about the correct 1/4 inch. This time, when I put the switch together, it worked.
In trying to put the switch back together, I found bending the corners of the metal box around the corners was not going to work. Allow me to post another picture.
This is the phenolic base. I want you to notice the four "towers", one in each corner. Kind of like a castellated nut. After assembling the switch and holding it together with my hand, I drilled a 1/16" hole through the
corner of the metal box and on through the towers. I broke a 1/16" drill bit into 1/4" pieces prior to this to have them ready and pushed them into the holes, gluing them into place. I hooked up my test battery and wala, it worked perfectly. At least the for/aft mechanism did. Now see my "Power seat elevator repair" thread.
