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trrdster2000
Luke Skywalker
Offline
Triumph Light Sockets the reason they do not work, and what to do about it.
Now we all know the ground is the one thing we all have in common, trying to get a good one takes sand paper or a small grinder (i.e. Dremel) to remove paint or heaven forbid RUST!!! In the case of these rear light sockets on TR6’s and Spitfires the obvious
Is not the problem, little feelers we can’t get to ground, even with sanding the oxidation off? Guess what folks; it also oxidized on the bottom. The ground pick up is a small copper piece; one side rest against the bulb and the other has the aluminum plate squeezed on top of it. I have taken them apart to clean the bottom of the plate but it’s just not a good solution as the plastic can brake and it’s really hard to get a good seal, barring using heat to melt the plastic back around the aluminum.
Now for the fix. Where the small copper ground and the aluminum plate come together, use a small grinding stone on a drill or Dremel, grind off the surface oxidation on the upper surface of the aluminum around the small ground an 1/8 inch or so back and ¼ inch to the side. Lightly touch the copper ground and the positive connection, or connectors in the bottom of the bulb holder. Get a soldering iron and some small electrical solder with rosin in the center. Hold the whole socket in a vise or even some large vise grips, but on enough to hold it in place only, not clamped. When soldering two different materials together one will always heat up faster, in this case the aluminum will take the longest. For those who don’t have the soldering experience, never just melt the solder off the gun to the metal, touch the metal with the solder about an 1/8 inch or so away from the gun and when it melts there the metal will absorb the solder, which is what you need, other wise it’s just laying on top of the metal and will just flip off with your finger. Now that you have the solder sticking to the aluminum run the gun down to the copper, which should already be hot enough to absorb the solder and pull down a bit of solder onto the copper, add some if you don’t have enough for a bridge between the two. There is enough space it won’t interfere with the bulb unless you really glob it on. After it all cools off use some needle nose pliers to pull the ground out slightly and the positive connectors up slightly, not something you need to put a lot of muscle into and you are done.
In my case I was just fed up enough to put a ground wire (16 gauge), soldered to a feeler on each socket and run them together to a bolt that holds the light fixture on, overkill.
Hope this will help and you can do it on the kitchen table in the warm. Just remember when you put the sockets back, the one that has the double wire for running lights and brake the green wire goes on top. Oh, not a bad idea to sand these connections and use your needle nose pliers to close up the slide on connector some, again not a lot of pressure or you will never get it back on. Good luck, Wayne
Now we all know the ground is the one thing we all have in common, trying to get a good one takes sand paper or a small grinder (i.e. Dremel) to remove paint or heaven forbid RUST!!! In the case of these rear light sockets on TR6’s and Spitfires the obvious
Is not the problem, little feelers we can’t get to ground, even with sanding the oxidation off? Guess what folks; it also oxidized on the bottom. The ground pick up is a small copper piece; one side rest against the bulb and the other has the aluminum plate squeezed on top of it. I have taken them apart to clean the bottom of the plate but it’s just not a good solution as the plastic can brake and it’s really hard to get a good seal, barring using heat to melt the plastic back around the aluminum.
Now for the fix. Where the small copper ground and the aluminum plate come together, use a small grinding stone on a drill or Dremel, grind off the surface oxidation on the upper surface of the aluminum around the small ground an 1/8 inch or so back and ¼ inch to the side. Lightly touch the copper ground and the positive connection, or connectors in the bottom of the bulb holder. Get a soldering iron and some small electrical solder with rosin in the center. Hold the whole socket in a vise or even some large vise grips, but on enough to hold it in place only, not clamped. When soldering two different materials together one will always heat up faster, in this case the aluminum will take the longest. For those who don’t have the soldering experience, never just melt the solder off the gun to the metal, touch the metal with the solder about an 1/8 inch or so away from the gun and when it melts there the metal will absorb the solder, which is what you need, other wise it’s just laying on top of the metal and will just flip off with your finger. Now that you have the solder sticking to the aluminum run the gun down to the copper, which should already be hot enough to absorb the solder and pull down a bit of solder onto the copper, add some if you don’t have enough for a bridge between the two. There is enough space it won’t interfere with the bulb unless you really glob it on. After it all cools off use some needle nose pliers to pull the ground out slightly and the positive connectors up slightly, not something you need to put a lot of muscle into and you are done.
In my case I was just fed up enough to put a ground wire (16 gauge), soldered to a feeler on each socket and run them together to a bolt that holds the light fixture on, overkill.
Hope this will help and you can do it on the kitchen table in the warm. Just remember when you put the sockets back, the one that has the double wire for running lights and brake the green wire goes on top. Oh, not a bad idea to sand these connections and use your needle nose pliers to close up the slide on connector some, again not a lot of pressure or you will never get it back on. Good luck, Wayne
