Roundie Tail Light Woes. Bad bulb grounds. Reverse light on.

[josh72ooh2]

I've been having some issues with the brake light being intermittent on one side of the car. I took apart the light to find out that the light bulb isn't seated too tight in the housing. it has a 'sweet spot' and if i go over enough bumps, the bulb juggles out of place and the sweet spot is lost.

i tried another housing and it had the same thing.

The bulb simply isn't being grounded too well.

It Could be because both housings were sprayed by the previous owners to be more reflective?

But the bulbs (new or old) still have some play in them when seated.

i ended up wedging a really small prong of an electrical terminal connector in between the bulb and the housing and now it works fine.

Is this common? are there any other remedies?

I might take my spare tail light and hit the bulb housings with some sandpaper but that won't fix all the free play.

Also... I realized that my reverse light is out on one side.

The local Pep Boys doesn't carry that bulb... (15W).

Is there a substitute wattage bulb i can use? The side that worked had a 21W bulb in the reverse light position and with the one dead bulb, the other side's reverse light remained on when the car was on.... which may mean there is a short somewhere, or the switch is bad... but i want to at least start off with the correct bulbs and troubleshoot from there.

If it is the reverse switch, where is it found on a 5-speed tranny?

And where does that wire run? In case of a short or a bad ground...

-Josh

[RandyMolson]

I like your fix for the light...wedge in a conductor...why not!

Try another store, such as a NAPA, for the correct bulb wattage. Changing the rated wattage is asking for trouble.

The reverse light is triggered by a pair of insulated wires running from the transmission, up through a hole drilled in the floor, under the carpet and connecting to the main wiring harness that runs along the floor on the left side of the car and into the trunk. There are no relays in the circuit. The circuit is closed by a switch in the transmission. So if your rev light is stuck on, either the tranny switch is sticking/broken or, less likely, the wire going back to the lights is worn through and is picking up power from an adjacent worn-through wire.

[Guest Anonymous]

for the loose bulb - on all of my 2002s, the contact for the bulb is a prong that can be bent up to provide a more secure fit.

[BillWilliams]

the switch on the five speed is shown here;

It is the thing sticking up with two terminals on it.

WHen the transmission is in the car, the switch is most easily seen from the top of the engine bay from the passenger's side.

[josh72ooh2]

Is that the cleanest transmission in the world?

Bill, you seem to be the electrical go-to guy.

Thanks to Randy and the other bill as well.

Can you reach the switch from within the engine bay? or do you have to get under the car and do a reach around (LOL)....

-josh

[im3crazy]

There are a number of problems with this design as it ages! I've attached a pic that shows some of what I found needed correction. I'll send a pic of the corrected version.

The red arrows shows a rivet that holds the spade lug connector and the bulb contact point. These seem to be 2 different metals- one for springing, the other is softer for contact. I've noticed high resistance in this riveted joint, loss of springiness, and poor spade lug connections on the wire and on the lamp housing.

The fix I followed was to drill out the mounting rivet, install new contacts points made out of available copper spade lug "double male" materials, re-rivet, solder the rivet to the assembly, and clean up the bulb side nib contacts (see yellow arrow) where the bulb seats in the lamp housing. Contact there was a real problem until the surfaces were cleaned with de-oxit, and the bulbs were forced against the housing with the increased pressure.

Pay attention to warnings on the board about increasing your wattage. Many a really nice lens assembly has been quickly burned-in using higher than specified.

I cleaned up the tragic soldering from the PO and the poor ground connection to the lamp housing and the body ground near the gas tank. The results from this work and a housing reflector re-silvering using aluminum foil "repair tape" was very surprising.

Good luck.

[BillWilliams]

One would disagree with my electrical prowess.

I try to help when I can.

The switch can be reached from the top, and from the bottom, I think.

[josh72ooh2]

Well... in regards to the Back-up light...

The Previous owner baffles me sometimes. He stripped the car of every nut and bolt, down to a shell, painted it, and reassembled the car...but re-used many of the old, janky bits vs replacing certain things like brittle wiring...

Because of the 5Speed conversion, a small extension was made near the brittle old wiring of the old Reverse switch to the new 5Speed switch. The problem was that the connectors were bare, not shielded with plastic, and covered with electrical tape...the electrical tape got squishy, like electrical tape does, and the two connectors were stuck against one another thus causing a short and leaving the tail lights on.

When i tried to disconnect them, the wire was so brittle, the female connector snapped from the wire. on both wires.

So... with a new extension wire make, all new connectors, shielded with plastic, some heat shrink tubing, and a contortionist act trying to get the new connectors attached to the Reverse switch and I am back in business.

The good:

Now i know all about my reverse light system.

The Bad:

a few hours i could have spent doing something else... like hooking up a 3rd brake light.

Oh well... Now to figure out why the license plate lights don't work...

Thanks again to you guys for helping me track down the culprit.

-Josh

[TobyB]

I sandblasted the insides of the holders, then greased 'em up with bulb grease

(yes, such a thing exists, or at least, did at one time.)

But the other thing that often happens is that the stronger springy

connector breaks, then the connection that fails first is the ground.

The metallurgy isn't very good...

t