In search of the elusive Zing Ear ZE-268S5

Feel free to Google, but I’ll save you the effort–it’s a switch for a ceiling fan.  I broke it about a week ago.  Just pulled on it as usual, and pulled the bead chain right out of the switch.  At 11:30.  At night.  At least the fan was off, not on full speed on, which in our bed room is about a Force 7 near gale.

So I got a standard 4 wire fan switch and was delayed until tonight to put it on.  Take things apart and I’m confronted with a switch that has 5 wires going into it.

Well damn.  What has the effing Hunter Ceiling Fan Co. come up with now?

Well, it seems they have come up with something that I can’t buy on Amazon for one thing, and something they won’t sell me for another.  Nanny forbid that I actually do something as dangerous as put a switch in a ceiling fan.  As if climbing up a ladder to swap out an entire assembly is going to be that much safer.  Since I’m also genetically averse to paying $40 (or whatever) to fix a $6.95 part, this is not going to happen.

I suspect that the Intertubz being the Intertubz, and the actual manufacturer and part number being known, I can make short work of finding a Zing Ear ZE-268S5 somewhere or other, even if it’s not a place I normally deal with.  I suspected incorrectly.  30 minutes later, and the best I could do was a link that tells me how to swap a 4 wire switch in it’s place.  Just in case something happens to that page, let’s copy the pertinent data here as well.

So I use that information and my 4 wire switch, and ta-da, we have a working ceiling fan.  However, it’s missing something–the next to highest speed, which is about Force 4, and the one we use a lot.  Looking at the L, 1, 2, 3, 4 business, I conclude that L must be the lowest speed, which would make the highest number the highest speed.  Hey, it could happen.

So I had the following information:

• The original wiring of my ZE-268S5 (Black, Gray, Green, Brown, Purple) as recorded by my cell phone camera (What did we do before cell phones?)
• The observation that with the new scheme on a 4 wire, 3 position switch that I had speeds 1, 2, and 4

I decided to swap the currently unused Green for Purple and see what happens.  I figured I’d get the old Speed 3, or Force 4.

Damned if it didn’t work.  By golly, Jim, I’m beginning to think I can cure a rainy day!