Vintage Synth Repair

For the ARP DPDTs switches, the trick is to find one with a 15 mm posts. THis is really long, and it is indeed somewhat impossible to find one of this length.

The body however is actually a pretty standard size, so this part is not an issue.

First thing to do is to stop looking for one that is surface mount… you will not find it. Look instead for one that is at least 5mm longer than the average radioshack fare. I think this means about 10mm.

I managed to find some on ebay that looked had this slightly longer shaft. I soldered on 6 terminal posts from an old tape deck to serve as the mounting pins. You could use any, strong, conductive metal of the right thickness to do this.  If you tape off the top (I think they will short out if they touch the casing), you can get them up just high enough so that they look like the others from the outside.

Even if you do not go this route (trying to match the visual look of the original), I see no reason why one should have to lose this function just because it doesn't look right. Just buy any old switch and mount it somehow on the case taping off or whatever so it doesn't short out. Then run wires down to the original terminals on the board.  A toggle switch with nylon washers on either side of the front case mounting might work just fine… ugly… but you keep the function!

just my 2 cents...