Im finally getting around the my rear bumper swap. since i will be using the 68-73 style taillights is there a way to change the bulb socket ? i finally got my four taillights and they either have a missing socket or one that i cannot remove easily.what sockets should i buy or would the 75 ones work? I already have 4 brake light set up so that would be ideal for me . any help would be appreciated

 

This was just posted on a Mopar forum from a guy needing new taillight sockets for his 69 Roadrunner.

From Mike @ B, E, A: "Send me your old ones, for $35, I'll press new ones in both." http://www.beaparts.com/

MAYBE he can help you with yours.

 

TTT. i emailed the place but have yet to hear back. if anyone can give me any insight i would appreciate it !

 

For what it's worth

When I did the 4-light conversion with rings, I used my stock pots rather than looking for a second set of brake / turn ones

The holder is staked into the housing but it's soft and you can use a flat screw driver and work your way around the inside to un-stake the holder a little at a time until it comes out, most are split somewhere around and that edge is the best place to start lifting the rolled over bit




The replacement 2-contact socket I used was from a box of salvaged parts gathered over the years so I'm not sure what it was actually off of, maybe a pickup or ???, check NAPA for a repair one that clips in or hit the wrecking yard / flea market for ones that are staked into metal housings that weren't accessible from the back side rather than clipped into plastic ones that were changed from the trunk

Installed the new one and re-staked (ready for re-painting, stripped paint to make sure it had a good ground on the socket)


and re-wired, (need the extra blue and white wires for the LED ring parking lamp)


So anyway, not much help but changing the bulb holders is fairly straight forward
M

 

Hey for what its worth I installed 68-73 LED taillights when I did my conversion. I have the 4 tail lights and use back up lights in the same location as 68's use.

 

I did the four brake light conversion too- and went with LED plus added Halos

I found these to be the easiest to swap out- drilled a couple holes and riveted them in place, Keeps the bulb in the right place

 

Hey Big Eddie! Why swap sockets? I posted on this a while ago. all 4 lights are bright LED brake lights, and directionals are two at a time. Backup lights are under the license plate.

Copied from my previous post:

I decided to mod my the taillights and reverse lights on my 69 to four red lenses and a relocated assembly under the license plate . Have a look.




This wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. My rear harness has the 1157 filaments swapped, side-to-side. I do not know if all 69’s are like that, kind of hard to tell. It wasn’t very noticeable with incandescent bulbs, but converting to LED’s, the brightness difference bothered me. Being moderately OCD I needed to fix it somehow without digging into my rear harness as I have a fuel pump in the way on the dim side that I didn’t want to touch. Solution was to reorient the LED by filing off one of the bumps and inserting the bulb 180 out. It’s worked out OK even though it’s not fully inserted.

I left all the original receptacles in place, so the 1156 and 1157 sockets remain. I jumpered into the outer lights to control the inner lights. All four brake lights light up when the brakes are applied. The directionals are two at a time on either side. I don't normally drive at night so that circuit is still the same, the two outer lights.

The 1156 and 57 replacements are equally bright and I figured the photons might as well be red like the lenses. Color artifacts from the camera don’t do the picture justice so I’ll leave that picture out. But they really are bright and more importantly all four are really noticeable.

The reverse lights are an acrylic piece that I cut and polished to hold two SuperBright multi-mode five LED light bars. They have about 20 different flash modes and can be synchronized. I picked a simple mode and left them unsynchronized. You can see a reflection artifact briefly in the video.

The surround is some aluminum bar stock that I bent and polished. The flag is a modern variety that fits very nicely after cutting off the engine logo that it came with. Got it off eBay.

I took some pains with the wiring, that took most of the time. Have a couple of WeatherTech connectors so if the LED’s fail I don’t have to cut any wires to swap the assembly out.

About the car. It is now 50 years old. Build date was January 3, 1969. I’m the second owner and the car was bought in Ohio as the license plate frame shows. Jackshaw was a performance Chevy and Pontiac dealer and sponsored drag racing. I had the frame made up, I don't know if the dealer ever supplied any frames with new car purchases but I couldn't find any. I am curious if anyone else knows anything about the dealer. There are a couple of pictures on the internet, but not that much.

Thanks for looking and thanks for the inspiration!