compatibility between early style bayonet bulb holders and later bar style ?

[jaywish]

My tail light/brake sockets seem to be getting tired. I was thinking of trying to use some later model sockets. Does anyone know if they will mount up into the old style taillight housings?

[86VickyLX]

Yes. You could swap them out. I know the 91 had the 3056/57 style push in bulbs instead of the 1156/57 twist in bulb.

[jaywish]

cool thanks

[86VickyLX]

Why not just get new sockets? I'm pretty sure they sell them in the parts store...

[jaywish]

Yes I am sure they sell new China made sockets, I just have no faith in them.

[gadget73]

If its just the contacts that aren't working so well, you can probably bend them out a bit to connect better. if the twist-lock part is worn out though, not much salvation there. The 3057 type sockets do seem to work OK. I haven't had any trouble out of the ones on my Mark VII or the S10.

[jaywish]

The sockets are heavy duty metal, I like them but the contacts are bars, kind of like lieutenants bars, they seem to not push out far enough for any new bulb I put in. I tried three different kinds so far. If I swap an old bulb with a new bulb the problem moves with the new bulb. I think the old bulbs had more metal in the contacts.

[marquis_82_withneons]

take your bulbs youre trying to put in and use i soldering iron, not the gun ones, they get too hot, use a soldering iron and add solder to the balls on the bottom. make them a bit bigger, it works well actually. that combined with pulling out the tabs inside should make it work nicely, worked for my LTD

[jaywish]

Follow up on this boondoggle.

The car has three turn signal bulbs for the right and for the left. The left side worked fine. The right was intermittent. When the right did not flash one of the two rear bulbs would not illuminate.

So change the bulb with some used bulb or other. Worked Ok ... for a while.. then the same intermittent problem. Put in a new China made Sylvania, no improvement, swaped in a NOS GE that I came across and the problem went away for a couple of months.

Then it came back. So I wiggled the wires when the bulb was not lit and it came on, Ok bad socket or wires. I pulled the sockets out removed the bulbs and peeled the electrical tape off the harness. Forgot which one did not work so i put the bulbs back in, after spending a couple of hours waiting for it to fail, I marked the failure with tape. I decided to clean the already clean sockets and put in some dielectric. When I put the bulbs back in to check, I switched the bulbs. Eventually when it failed again the failure was now in the other socket with the new bulb. The failure followed the bulb. I said FI, change the harness and both sockets.

Got a harness from an 04 GM. The new sockets have a 90 degree body where the old are straight. The new sockets fit except that due to the configuration of the wagon body the upper socket could not lock into place due to the shape of its body contacting the wagon body. So off to get a China socket at FLAPS.

Get the socket. Dorman, with the extended bulb neck. Dorman sucks, short pigtails, crappy stamping, and really did just barely fit. It took me 20 min to insert the socket.

Anywho got the two replacement sockets spliced in nice, the bulbs flash so I wrap the wires, install the sockets in the tail light and .... fail... the GE bulb.

So I say WTF and buy a China made Standard brand flasher for $9.78. Everything works great now except I don't like the sound of the blinker. Sounds cheap.

Well I learned the hard way on this one. I never had a flasher fail where it would not allow a particular bulb to light before. So live and learn.

Oh by the way the flashers are electronic, not the old style mechanical, though the housings and connections look the same. I do not know what would happen if you put in a mechanical unit.

[gadget73]

thats odd. The way the lamps are wired it doesn't make any sense that it would cause one bulb to not work. They should all work or not. Its usually not even the case that one side works and not the other since one flasher handles both.

[jaywish]

Tell me about it. It is still possible that the intermittent fault will return. At one point it went away for months.

[marquis_82_withneons]

sounds to me like a ground problem, and the one not working being the worst ground

[jaywish]

Oddly it moved from socket to socket with the bulb. Still could be a ground issue. The rears are all run individually to one point behind the left quarter trim panel. So far though the new flasher seems to have made everything work.

[sly]

I had that issue with the old bulbs in the Mark. The cornering light wouldn't work right until I put in a new bulb that was NOT a brass base. This is with the bayonet bulbs though. Never had that issue with slot style bulbs.

[jaywish]

The issue here was not the slot bulbs, I just want to replace the sockets with the slot/bar style from a late model junker as opposed to using a new China made socket. So interesting, when you went to a steel base bulb it worked. I wonder if a new flasher would have solved your anomaly.