Rear bulb Holder Hassle

[TR Paul]

Good evening fellow TR6ers. Last night I noticed that the o/s tail light wasn't working, on TRoy, my 1970 TR6 pi. After some investigation, I found that it's the bulb holder that's to blame... Most irritating, considering that this particular unit's only 3 or 4 years old.

Before I fork out for a new one, does anybody know of any ways to repair these things, or even where to buy decent quality bulb holders that might work for a reasonable amount of time!

Cheers,

Paul

[barkerwilliams]

Paul,

Are you sure there is no water getting into the bulb holder? If it is dry any bulb holder should last  many years.

A squirt of silicone oil spray (£2.50'ish a can) to coat the bulb base and metal work will assist in preventing corrosion in a new holder.

Alan

[RogerH]

Hi Paul,

there was a thread earlier this year regarding the quality of new holders.

Will your's not be able to be cleaned if you removed them.

 

Roger

[Waldi]

Hi Paul,

Have a look at Ed’s website, perfect description of the issue and solution.

http://bullfire.net/TR6/TR6 TOC.html

 

Waldi

Edited August 28, 2019 by Waldi
Link added

[TR Paul]

Thanks Alan, Roger & Waldi. Your comments are most welcome (esp the Link to Eds' website... most impressive!!).

This is such a head scratcher for me, as there is no visible corrosion in the bulb holder (it still looks brand new), & I can't see any breakage. Earthing  doesn't make any difference (I've had similar probs with the rear indicators, which I cured by attaching earth wires). Still it'll be worth seeing if silicon oil makes any difference.

Cheers,

Paul

[richard61]

Had this last week. The problem was due to a poor contact to the base of the bulb when in the bulb holder, pressing the base of the holder lit the bulb. So I gently bent the two copper strips further into the holder to put more pressure on the base of the bulb. A thicker strip of copper should retain the shape/contact better

[Steves_TR6]

An easy way to improve the earthing is to solder in additional earth wires.

i did this a couple of years ago and not had a problem since 

steve

[RobH]

Paul - before you can repair it you need to find out why the bulb isn't making proper contact. If an earth wire doesn't help it must be a simple mechanical dimension problem. Silicon oil isn't going to fix that and in fact may make things worse because it isn't conductive. Have you tried a different bulb which might fit better?

[TR Paul]

Evening gents, many thanks for your responses.... I have swapped bulbs, because the original issue was that the 'dull' (tail lamp) filament in the bulb had failed, but then that bulb might have been a better fit than what's in there now; problems breed more problems!  I shall keep digging.

Sweet dreams,

Paul.

[DaveR]

If you can test the bulb and bulb holder on the bench using a battery.  

But be careful not to short out the battery.

Also if you have a multi-meter check you have a voltage at the bulb holder connectors. This is not always conclusive as the multi-meter doesn't provide sufficient load to show a poor earth. But still worth a check.   

Dave 

[TR Paul]

Hello, just thought I'd give you all a quick progress report: This morning, I tweaked the tail lamp contact, within the bulb holder, which resulted in the tail lamp working, but not the brake lamp (the opposite of the situation last night; grrrr..., but it did prove a point). However, after a bit more fiddling of two contacts, I now have both tail-lamps AND brake lamps working (for the moment!).... a miracle!  

I will, in the not too distant future, be looking at earth leads for all my rear lamps (already got them on the indicators). 

A big thank you to all of you, for your kind & knowledgeable advice; Happy TRing to you all!

Best wishes,

Paul

[Alan Gill]

Had same problem with our TR6 and MK4 Zodiac that has the same bulb type holder. Soldered on separate earths. All is well.

Alan G