Alan thanks a million for that diagram! I had no idea the internals looked like that. The lever on my switch can be pushed downward/inward and I can feel the spring pushing back. I wondered if I push down and then flip the switch if the additional pressure in the spring would make a difference to the problem but it did not appear to help. In hindsight I should have wired in a separate on/off switch but I really thought the 3 position one would be perfect. I think it's a poor design that the switch cannot cope with such a simple task.
Speaking of electric shock I had a rather large one in my teens. I was wiring a ceiling fan into my bedroom ceiling back when I lived in the UK. I was sure I had the switch off but unfortunately and stupidly I did not. The circuit I was wiring it into was 240v and fused for 30amps. I had the ground wire clasped in my left hand, holding it out of the way and with my right hand I touched the positive. I have had several mains shocks in my life but this was the most extreme. It felt like my chest had been slammed with a car. My vision instantly went pure white and I was blind. As my muscles contracted I was knocked off the chair I was standing on and fell to the floor but I was numb and didn't feel the impact. The white vision lasted for only a few seconds before fading back in again. For a moment I thought I had died, what with the whole white light and not being able to feel my body. Then the pain came in. My whole body ached and my chest and arms hurt the most.
No lasting damage done, or so I thought. Until I started having problems with my heartbeat shortly after and it was discovered after a series of scans and tests that I had nodal re-entrant tachycardia, a condition involving the circuitry that tells the heart when to beat. I very much suspect the shock across my chest caused it. It was a bit worrisome for a while as the docs wanted to give me a pacemaker but I refused, opting to give my body a chance to repair itself if possible. I have always had a deep interest in health and I'm not a big fan of doctors, knowing that a large portion of the health advice they give is nonsense. Fortunately it did in fact heal on its own and within a few years I almost never had palpitations anymore. Now 15 or so years later I don't have any problems with it anymore and have a completely normal heart.
