Mini Maglite LED Mod

I bought a Niteize 1 watt led combo kit from REI and installed it in my very old mini maglite yesterday. It has a very bright led, and a rear switch with several modes of operation. The one thing that I did not like was that I still had to twist the front of the maglite to turn it on before the rear switch would work. That kind of defeats idea of quick one hand operation for a tactical flashlight.

To get around this, I cut a small length of aluminum fencing wire and made a washer that goes under the plastic maglite pressure switch. This is the round piece of plastic into which the led or light bulb is inserted. Pry it up very gently and then fit the wire around it's base. Then cut the wire to exact length and smooth out the circle. It looks a bit like a cut washer crossed with an o-ring. This would normally prevent the light from turning off, but because of the rear switch, it works perfectly.

Now it can perform like it should, with the rear switch controlling the power supply for the lamp. I may post a picture if there is interest.