Like most of us here keeping my `77 Spiders lights on has been, perhaps, the greatest challenge I've faced. So many connectors; so many areas open to corrosion. And that is a battle I expect to continue for as long as I own her -- barring the (unlikely) replacement of the entire electrical harness.
But now its the switches.
Last year the ignition switch was replaced. With a Lada which works fine now, but upon which I'd not bet lasting another 40 years.
This year it was the flasher/beam switch on the steering column.
No, it had not failed completely. It was a "sometimes" affair. -One made more difficult to establish because of other, more common, issues such as corrosion on the bulb sockets, ground connections, blade connectors and between the fuse box and the fuses.
But as each of those was dealt with one intermittent problem continued to appear and I narrowed it down, in all likelihood, to that switch.
Whether my suggestion here proves to be a long-term answer, or not, only time will tell. But for now it has everything working flawlessly and feeling good to boot. And that is the application of a spray contact cleaner/lubricant to the switch 'innards' via the stalk openings.
The product I used is RadioShack Control/Contact Cleaner and Lubricant (Catalog #: 6400148). It was something I've had on hand for a while, having used it with good affect on such things as guitar and amplifier pots.
Application was easy. I simply put both stalks fully up and sprayed it into the opening, then fully down and repeated. Then I moved the stalks up/down up/down until any feeling of stiffness and roughness disappeared. (Maybe 6 or 8 times)
The change in "feel" was immediate. The correction of the problem went from not working, to working sometimes, to working fully and always. This, I expect, because each movement of the stalks moved the cleaning along another notch.
No, this won't "fix" a truly broken switch. But if one is feeling rough it may IMO be worth doing, even if the switch is still functioning. And it is certainly a worthwhile thing to try if your switch, like that on my `77, has become intermittent.
Here's a link to the product if there is no longer a RS in your neighborhood: https://www.radioshack.com/products/rad ... 5717842309
-don