<VV> Taillight Re: Deep Breath Time

[tkalp at cox.net]

My cure for the EM style taillight ground problems is to drill a small 
hole and put a small sheetmetal screw in the junction between the socket 
and housing then run a ground wire from the screw to the body, has 
worked well for me.

tkalp
wichita, ks


On Wed, Sep 9, 2009 at 10:25 AM , corvairduval at cox.net wrote:

> 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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