I'm working on my brothers 71 Comet and his tail light bulb sockets keep falling out of the housing. They are held in with a twist and the small metal tabs that hold it in are broken off. Also he keeps a lot of stuff in the trunk and the stuff will bump into the sockets and knock them out. I want to make a shield to protect them and keep them in place. I'm sure other people had this problem. What did you do to correct it? Pictures would be great Danford1
What small metal tabs are broken off? The reason I ask is I've never seen a Comet taillight socket with metal tabs.... My sockets are factory originals and are all plastic which also twist to lock them in/on the housing.
Maybe you could fashion some type of strap to go across the back of the sockets to hold them in, might be able to even use the existing bolts of the mounting to run the strap across, like a nylon or rubber strip of material.
Comet taillight sockets are not metal, they are plastic. Mavericks are metal. Some one may have changed them. My sockets were bad the wires were broken. Ordered some from one member here and he sent me metal ones. I couldn't use them. Ordered more from another member and they were 2 different kinds. Managed to use some of my orginals and some from 2nd member. would still like to find some new ones that fit.
Melvins Classic Ford sells replacement taillight sockets for both the Maverick as well as the Comet. Check your housing to be sure you still see 3 ears... Could be the housing may be missing some of the area which would secure the socket once twisted to the locked position.
Here are picts of the socket. It is metal. It 'had' 3 locking fingers, only 1 is left. Yes I can come up with a strap of some sort. Rather than reinvent the wheel, I'd like to see what others have done. Less work and headache for me plus it would be something that works IF it is simply the wrong sockets, then where can I get the correct ones? The back up light sockets are easy to rig since they are different. I can drill holes in the housing and insert a rod to hold them in. No problem there... Danford1
I saw the Melvin reply after I posted the picts. Here are 2 more picts. One is the backup light housing, different set up, easy to slip a rod in there to hold socket in. The other pict is the tail light housing. All 3 bosses are still there. Danford1
I change out all my sockets with new style ford sockets, they accept the new pushin style bulbs, 3157's, its a little work but well worth it.
Mine has plastic sockets but are no doubt replacements as the wiring is spliced... When I bought it there were no backup light sockets at all, so I robbed the ones from a '88 T-Bird... For those to fit I had to trim a small tab from the sockets but now twist into place with no issue... Good thing is these sockets use the single contact 1156 bulb vs the original dual contact 1076(which are all but unobtanium, or at least have to be ordered)...
