Roundie tail light question...

[beammmer]

ran out of time searching. Does anyone have a suggestion for a repair????

On passenger side taillight housing one of the plastic connectors is lifting off the posts. It's the brake light, the one on the left in the picture below. The brake light is intermittent due to this condition. I press the connector back on the posts and due to the spring pressure it works back up.

In the second picture the connector in question is on the left.

Thanks for your help, Don

[jgerock]

Sorry I cannot help you - BUT your taillight housing is date coded January 9, 1973.

[golf73]

put in a new rivet?

wedge something between the plastic housing and the metal base to level out the housing so it is not tilting to one side?

bend the contact tabs so there is more pressure against the bulb contact?

get a good used taillight housing?

[beammmer]

Sorry I cannot help you - BUT your taillight housing is date coded January 9, 1973.

Pretty close to Just In Time. The car was built Tuesday, January 16, 1973.

Don

[cyclopticgaze]

Super glue?

[ingraham]

Remove all the bulbs. Support the housing from the bulb side with something solid, soft-surfaced, and curved to match the reflector. Hold the plastic block firmly against the housing. Mash down the cross-hatched rivet heads with a small ball-peen hammer.

To improve the spreading during the mashing, you could start by center-punching those two. Or you could drill a very small, shallow hole in the center of each.

If all of that fails, clamp in place and use epoxy cement.

[Guest Anonymous]

As Curt wisely noted, the cross hatched metal has been previously press fit and I would examine the other side and see if it could be reformed by repressing or restaking. I encountered a similar issue where someone messed things up and actually soldered the contacts to the bulb. Crude, effective and it was hardly set up for easy replacement of burned bulbs. On the other hand, while Toby may not have approved, it worked.

[im3crazy]

I repaired mine using two #4 (small) self tapping screws after removing the rivets which I think I drilled out. I used two 1" by 1/4" wide piece of brass strips on top of each other which I drilled to accept a small (#4 or 6)round head machine screw, lock washer and backing nut. I trimmed down the brass stock a bit to accept the spade terminal on the wire. This works fine after an initial bending with a small needle nose pliars to match the bulb position.

[jgerock]

[quote="beammmer

Pretty close to Just In Time. Don

LOL - Not often I hear of JIT except from manufacturing folks.