Parking light woes

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Joined
May 11, 2023
Messages
103
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108
Location
Long Beach, CA
My Car
1972 "Q" Code Mach1
Does anyone know where to locate the correct fit lighting sockets for the yellow running lights in a 1972 Mach1 grill? I have looked high and low and have purchased some that look correct but are not.
 
Exact sockets don't exist. I use the Dorman lights with 3 wires and only use 2 of the 3 wires. I don't believe there exists a 2 wire lamp socket for that application on the market.
 
Midlife is correct about the two wire. I did find more than a couple but thru no fault of anyone but myself, I broke a socket/wire and needed to find a replacement to avoid things being only "half-arsed".

Somewhere here, in all the posts on the subject, someone directed me to the socket and I found them at one of the standard parts stores, I just can't remember which. It very well may have been midlife. Then again, a good number of the logerterm members have been more than a little helpful with a plethora of things.

I also figured, and mentioned in a post I couldn't find, I was surprised to see they were actually labeled for the Maverick and or Pinto of the same era.

In the end, I took advantage of the 3rd wire and made it functional like the actual turn signals on the '73. The reasoning was the added feature for safety as a sort of DRL with a higher mounted, secondary turn signal, again for safety.

There are too many drivers that lose sight of the road from distractions and while our older cars can be "eye-catching", many times they're not and wrecks happen. Anything to help mitigate or better yet, eliminate, the worst from happening.
 
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That's interesting
Midlife is correct about the two wire. I did find more than a couple but thru no fault of anyone but myself, I broke a socket/wire and needed to find a replacement to avoid things being only "half-arsed".

Somewhere here, in all the posts on the subject, someone directed me to the socket and I found them at one of the standard parts stores, I just can't remember which. It very well may have been midlife. Then again, a good number of the logerterm members have been more than a little helpful with a plethora of things.

I also figured, and mentioned in a post I couldn't find, I was surprised to see they were actually labeled for the Maverick and or Pinto of the same era.

In the end, I took advantage of the 3rd wire and made it functional like the actual turn signals on the '73. The reasoning was the added feature for safety as a sort of DRL with a higher mounted, secondary turn signal, again for safety.

There are too many drivers that lose sight of the road from distractions and while our older cars can be "eye-catching", many times they're not and wrecks happen. Anything to help mitigate or better yet, eliminate, the worst from happening.
That's interesting about using the 3 wire sockets and using the third wire as a turn OR DRL. I've been thinking about converting or adding a second bulb wired to be a DRL. Something to look further into. My plan was to add a second socket to my grill lights or just terminate the original (but not remove) the original sockets and install a socket wired into a 'key on' live circuit and something Mark might like to consider too.
 
A 3 wire socket is typically for a bulb with 2 filaments, 1 for parking brightness (dimmer) and 1 for signal brightness (brighter). These are common bulbs available in clear or yellow. For increased brightness you could connect to the wire for signaling or connect both and be brighter yet.
 
Exact sockets don't exist. I use the Dorman lights with 3 wires and only use 2 of the 3 wires. I don't believe there exists a 2 wire lamp socket for that application on the market.
I got a nice used one from Mike at motorcitymustang and splice it in. I had a Dorman but it not matching the original one kept me up at night. 🤪
 
A 3 wire socket is typically for a bulb with 2 filaments, 1 for parking brightness (dimmer) and 1 for signal brightness (brighter). These are common bulbs available in clear or yellow. For increased brightness you could connect to the wire for signaling or connect both and be brighter yet.
I know someone will and should correct my numbering of the bulb so, I believe it's an 1157. This is the LED version I'm using for the sport lamps via the socket mentioned. Note the two colors of yellow and amber and I'm thinking one is the signal led's and the others are sport light led's. These are much brighter than the incandescent, so you do get to achieve the goal of the sport lamps. The 96 that's listed for stock sport lamps is "okay", but it didn't give me the goal I was wanting to achieve.
If you look at my signature pic, these are the bulb shown.

IMG_2602.jpg
 
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