Taillight fix

[Sheriff41]

Well, after years of fiddling with the taillight sockets on my '72, I decided to take drastic action. I purchased some modern style replacement sockets (Amazon) and LED lights (Amazon and eBay), modified the socket openings in the taillight housing, and spliced in the wiring. I made a cardboard template, marked to housings, and used an Xacto knife to trim out the openings. The sockets fit nicely in the taillight housing and the LED lights brighten things up significantly. All told, this modification cost me less than $95 and about two hours of my time. This retrofit was much more wallet friendly than the super nice LED panels on the market and will meet my basic needs for working lights on the back of the car!

Here are the links to the sockets:
Bought 2 of these for the taillights - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07RYB8414?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
Bought 1 of these for the reverse lights - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07S1BHLWK?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

UPDATE: I forgot to mention, the red wire on the socket connects to the car's brake/turn wire, the green wire connects to the taillight wire, and the black wire to ground.
Also, I don't think the 3156 LED provides as bright a reverse light as the multi-chip LED style lights. These Sylvania ones are probably better suited to modern lights with the chrome reflectors.

 

[Steve McMahan]

Nice work! When you get a chance, any before and after pics of the lighting?

 

[c9zx]

Very well done! Thanks for sharing, it will help someone in the future. Chuck

 

[midlife]

Nice. There are no reproduction tail-light lamp sockets that I have found, and most are highly corroded that come across my bench.

 

[machattack]

Well, after years of fiddling with the taillight sockets on my '72, I decided to take drastic action. I purchased some modern style replacement sockets (Amazon) and LED lights (Amazon and eBay), modified the socket openings in the taillight housing, and spliced in the wiring. I made a cardboard template, marked to housings, and used an Xacto knife to trim out the openings. The sockets fit nicely in the taillight housing and the LED lights brighten things up significantly. All told, this modification cost me less than $95 and about two hours of my time. This retrofit was much more wallet friendly than the super nice LED panels on the market and will meet my basic needs for working lights on the back of the car!

Here are the links to the sockets:
Bought 2 of these for the taillights - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07RYB8414?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
Bought 1 of these for the reverse lights - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07S1BHLWK?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details


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Nice work Sherriff ............Gotta do mine before I get a ticket as they go on and off without notice. Thanks for your tutorial.

 

[71coop]

Nice. There are no reproduction tail-light lamp sockets that I have found, and most are highly corroded that come across my bench.

Just asking a clarifying question - do you mean there are no accurate reproductions? I recently replaced a corroded factory socket with the one below, and it works well (fits very snug and tight) with the original, unmodified housing.

https://www.cjponyparts.com/taillight-socket-replacement-mustang-1967-1973/p/HW1038/
EDIT: Here is the one I actually used (Less costly, and is a solid (functional) piece:
https://www.kentuckymustang.com/ele...b-socket-each-1967-1973-pony-enterprises.html

 

[midlife]

That's not even close to being factory stock looking. Yes, I meant a socket that's reasonably close to stock.

 

[Moderator73]

Thank you for sharing the details of this great idea/solution. This is definitely something for us to place in our "Keeper" files.

 

[71coop]

That's not even close to being factory stock looking. Yes, I meant a socket that's reasonably close to stock.

To be clear - I wasn't suggesting it was stock-looking, just that it works. 2 splices and your done. I actually used a much cheaper version with black wiring, but can't remember where I got it. NPD maybe?

 

[Sheriff41]

Nice work! When you get a chance, any before and after pics of the lighting?

I didn't get any before pictures but I'll take some this weekend while I have the car out and post them here for you.

 

[PoFoMoCo]

Very, very nice. That is some great DIY fabrication. This is a great add for the site, it will definitely be repeated by someone in the future.

 

[Sheriff41]

Nice work! When you get a chance, any before and after pics of the lighting?

Steve, here are the after shots of the taillights and brake lights (sorry, no before shots). They are significantly brighter than the original filament bulbs and are very visible even in daylight.


I ended up using these LED bulbs for lights (2 x clear for reverse lights, 4 x red for the tail/brake lights): https://www.amazon.com/AUXITO-Lumen...d_grid_rp_0_1_ec_pd_gwd_bag_pd_gw_rp_3_t&th=1

 

[Steve McMahan]

Those look great. I can’t wait to make the change myself.

 

[PoFoMoCo]

Looks really good

 

[Paul Schmidt]

Thought I would give Sheriff a shout out here. I used this post to do exactly the same job on the coupe tonight. Same amazon parts, same process and the taillights look great. Really bright and quite a significant difference.

Discovered my backup lights don't work at all...but the reds look great!

PBR

 

[Bill Perkins]

Thought I would give Sheriff a shout out here. I used this post to do exactly the same job on the coupe tonight. Same amazon parts, same process and the taillights look great. Really bright and quite a significant difference.

Discovered my backup lights don't work at all...but the reds look great!

PBR

Show us some pictures PBR of the Taillights