'35 ford tail light wire and bulb socket....

H

HenryCarl

Member
I have a 1935 Ford. The taillight does not work. I ordered and received a new cable connecting the wiring, joined to a longer cable from the front of the car. I bought a new bulb and taillight socket with wire for a 1935 Ford coupe. Our test then showed 5.8 volts. When we put the bulb in, nothing happened. The voltage dropped to nothing. What are the possible problems to check? Attached is the metal ‘washer’ that surrounded the old bulb socket, that I didn’t reuse.

Thank you.
 

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HenryCarl said:
I have a 1935 Ford. The taillight does not work. I ordered and received a new cable connecting the wiring, joined to a longer cable from the front of the car. I bought a new bulb and taillight socket with wire for a 1935 Ford coupe. Our test then showed 5.8 volts. When we put the bulb in, nothing happened. The voltage dropped to nothing. What are the possible problems to check? Attached is the metal ‘washer’ that surrounded the old bulb socket, that I didn’t reuse.

Thank you.
Click to expand...

Carl, I ALWAYS solder a connection between the socket and housing, ALWAYS. I also hide a dedicated ground wire between the housing and the frame.
It is amazing how much brighter the bulbs glow with great grounds.
 
Whoa. And thank you. I have no idea whether that 'washer' was original or not. My Grandpa bought the car as a farmer's car in 1935. It's original and still in the family. The only changes are what you'd expect. Tires. Battery. Oil. And a new interior (animals invaded the interior while garaged on his farm...oh, and three bullet holes in back)...the last Lebarron Bonney, bought from a guy in Holland Michigan. Quite a story.

Thank you again.
 
HenryCarl said:
I have a 1935 Ford. The taillight does not work. I ordered and received a new cable connecting the wiring, joined to a longer cable from the front of the car. I bought a new bulb and taillight socket with wire for a 1935 Ford coupe. Our test then showed 5.8 volts. When we put the bulb in, nothing happened. The voltage dropped to nothing. What are the possible problems to check? Attached is the metal ‘washer’ that surrounded the old bulb socket, that I didn’t reuse.

Thank you.
Click to expand...
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Kube said:
Carl, I ALWAYS solder a connection between the socket and housing, ALWAYS. I also hide a dedicated ground wire between the housing and the frame.
It is amazing how much brighter the bulbs glow with great grounds.
Click to expand...

old cars have old metal to metal connections that unless cleaned periodically (and who does THAT? :), suffer. the lower the nominal voltage of the electrical system the more the suffering. The power lost to a bad connection, for those interested in such things, is calculated as:\(P = I^2 \times R\ . ...has something to do with Ohm's Law, i think.

i'm only commenting because i spent several delightful hours (*sarcasm*) yesterday debugging my turn signals. and fighting poor connections. smh

apparently, although i KNEW that solid state devices (i was attempting to convert my marker and tail light bulbs to LEDS) were sensitive to power limits and fluctuations, i failed to transfer that information to the task at hand and was probably being frustrated by voltage issues caused by corroded connections. ...will i never learn?
 
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Henry: Most of the time your going to get better fitting parts when order from one of the many antique car parts houses.
 
Thank you. I look forward to a Wisconsin kind of 1935 late spring here in Missouri. Warming temperatures. No air conditioning. I'm on this grounding solution while staying on the ground for as long as it takes.

The new bulb and wire came from C&G. Both went through the proper fit for year and model 5 window coupe. Standard.

Jim
 
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