There are little plastic tubes that hold the bakelite segments in a stack. If you take the screws out you should be able to gently pry the segments up from one end of the stack. They can be a little tricky to get apart after 40 years tightened together but will come loose with some patience. Just make a mental note (or better yet a picture) of how the stack all goes back together.

Hmm, that is frustrating. You could cheat and solder the wire to the remnant of remaining tab. It wouldn't be as satisfying as replacing the switch but would work.

I use a small flat blade screwdriver to get in between the spacers, and then work them apart. (I've actually filed the tip of the blade to have more of a point on it, just for this purpose.)

They will come apart, but it takes some doing. Once they start moving though, then they'll generally come right off. Need to work one end up a bit, then the other end, and so on.

Yeah use a tiny screwdriver to pry them apart and stick a new switch blade in there. Really the only way to do it.

I'd reccommend taking some pictures before you do...most likely the whole thing will fall apart on you and you'll want to remember what it looked like before you took it apart.

It really IS a pain in the ass - for that reason I'd suggest trying to solder the wire directly to that broken tab first. As far as these things go you actually do seem to have a generous amount of tab still hanging out of the stack, it may work.

Bakelite isn't that tough - you could also try prying the stack open/chipping a little away a bit before soldering, and cram a little of the wire in between the bakelite plates before soldering to what's left of the tab. You really want to try this before taking that whole switch stack out. This isn't board work you have a little room for sloppiness here.

Oh, one more thing - I put the screwdriver blade into where the topmost switch is (since there's a small gap made by the switch), and then leverage up on top of the switch to raise the spacer. Remove the top spacer first, then work down.

Take out the screws and remove the switch stack. Take a picture. The best tool I have found to separate the bakelite spacers is an X-acto blade. It is hard to do and will take some force, but it is not really that bad. Put the blade in at one end, then the other and work back and forth and you won't bend and snap the separators. When you have made a gap, switch to a small screwdriver. The spacers are pretty tough, and even if you knock off a corner or snap one in two, you can generally just put the pieces back in and push them on to the tubes.

You don't have to remove and replace the blade with the broken tab- just cut a tab off one of your spare switch blades and solder the wire to that tab. Then put the cut off blade on top of the blade that has the broken off tab. The screw pressure will make the electical contact between the old blade and new cut-off blade.

Don C.