• Hi Guest!
    If you appreciate British Car Forum and our 25 years of supporting British car enthusiasts with technical and anicdotal information, collected from our thousands of great members, please support us with a low-cost subscription. You can become a supporting member for less than the dues of most car clubs.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Bulb Removal Problem

Share this page

jjbunn

jjbunn

Jedi Knight
Offline
The bulb in one of the front indicator lights wont budge: it's immovable in any direction, and I need to replace it. I'm worried about forcing it and breaking the glass. I tried putting PB Blaster in there to loosen it up, but no luck.

Any bright ideas (sorry about the pun)?
 
Patience is a virtue...

Allow the PB Blaster to work...overnight if needed...reappliy if needed as well.. Use a piece of rubber hose (or similar) to help grasp the bulb and decrease your finger slipping.

It's probably been in there a long time...and they do tend to sieze....

If you break the glass, no biggie; you can still get the base of the bulb out with needle nose pliars.
 
OK! Thanks Rick: the rubber is a great idea! I'll apply some more PB.
 
funny you mention problems with your turn signal indicator lamp. while swapping my temp gauge for a dual temp/oil press gauge I managed to knock the bulb out of the back of my right turn signal indicator. I thought I had broken something earlier in the day, but on my drive home tonight, I noticed my floor was intermittently being lit while signaling right turns. I guess I get to poke around behind the dash again tomorrow.

As for the exterior bulbs, patience is the only thing that seems to work for me. Once you get it out, make sure you clean that socket up good! Dabbing some dielectric grease around inside the body should help reduce the likelihood of it happening again.
 
I second the usage of dielectric grease. It's great stuff.

I wrestled with an electrical issue for a while with these fixtures on my 73. The lights would work, but the turn signal flasher wouldn't flash - flasher can was fine, bulbs correct, wiring corect. There was a huge amount of resistance/corrosion in the bulb seat on one side.

I replaced them with the earlier style (white/orange) and wired the white side to my parking lamps/city lights. Been fine ever since, although I had to fabricate a gasket from the old one to fit the new fixtures.
 
rick_ingram said:
If you break the glass, no biggie; you can still get the base of the bulb out with needle nose pliars.
Click to expand...

My dad taught me to use a raw potato cut in half. True story. And it works, at least on larger fixtures, stuff it in, squeeze and twist.

My wife laughed at me, until the bulb spun right out. I just smiled at her and didn't say a word.
 
Scott_Hower said:
rick_ingram said:
If you break the glass, no biggie; you can still get the base of the bulb out with needle nose pliars.
Click to expand...

My dad taught me to use a raw potato cut in half. True story. And it works, at least on larger fixtures, stuff it in, squeeze and twist.

My wife laughed at me, until the bulb spun right out. I just smiled at her and didn't say a word.
Click to expand...

Smart man... for not saying a word! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif
 
half baked potato... why would anyone want to only bake their potato half way?/bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/jester.gif
 
When the chips are down, I can rely on you lot to trot out a few potato jokes.
 
Back
Top