<VV> Taillight Re: Deep Breath Time

[corvairduval at cox.net]

Frank, you've been working on late models too long!

The 63 taillight IIRC is a brass shell socket crimped in to the aluminum
taillight housing. The socket does not snap out like the late model design.

I have found there are two areas of improper ground conductivity. The first
is the aluminum housing to the body. The second is the brass socket to the
aluminum housing. OK, the third is the lamp shell to the brass socket! 

To find which ground is not low resistance, remove the taillight lense.
Connect a long wire to ground. A good ground, under a screw or negative
battery terminal. Turn on the taillamp in question. Touch the wire to the
lamp shell, brass socket, and aluminum housing one at a time. The last
touch that makes the light work properly, is the item that needs to have
its ground repaired.

Frank DuVal

Original Message:
-----------------
From: FrankCB frankcb at aol.com
Date: Wed,  9 Sep 2009 10:25:27 -0400
To: mvjacobi at comcast.net, virtualvairs at corvair.org
Subject: <VV> Taillight Re:  Deep Breath Time


Mike,
     Thanks for the excellent advice.
Regarding your "bad ground" on the taillight, Corvairs depend on good
electrical contact between the taillight housing and the sheet metal where
it snaps in the body.  If you're getting erratic operation of this light
(sometimes it lights, sometimes it doesn't) that erratic connection is
probably where the problem lies.  You can unsnap the housing and try
bending some of the tabs just a SLIGHTLY outward to improve the contact and
make sure there's clean metal on the body where the housing snaps in.  Or,
you can take the drastic step of replacing the stock housing with one that
Ford uses which is almost the same, EXCEPT it includes an extra ground wire
from the housing that can be directly attached to the car body with a sheet
metal screw.  Hopefully you won't have to go THAT far!<GGG>
     Frank "stock is a good beginning" Burkhard



If you want to cuss at something, drop by and help me track down the @#!^& 
bad ground in my 63 Monza's left taillight.  There'll be cuss words enough 
for all. 

Mike in Michigan 


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