Rear lighting harness help. 71 cutlass

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Old Apr 30, 2026 | 05:55 PM
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Rear lighting harness help. 71 cutlass

Redoing wiring on 71 cutlass. Rear tail lamp sockets all rotted. Looking for rear lighting harness or bulb sockets. Suggestions?
Old Apr 30, 2026 | 06:25 PM
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70sgeek's Avatar
'72 Cutlass ragtop
 
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From: Tampa, FL
New repro rear harness not too expensive but does require dropping gas tank for sender connection - still preferable in my opinion to cutting and pasting new sockets together
Old Apr 30, 2026 | 07:18 PM
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Originally Posted by 70sgeek
New repro rear harness not too expensive but does require dropping gas tank for sender connection
The sender wire to the tank has a connector at the pass-through near the trunk latch. Can’t the new harness just be plugged into the existing sender wire at that location?
Old May 1, 2026 | 08:45 AM
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Looked at opgi and other sights and cant find harness for rear lighting with sockets. Just the jumper harness that is in trunk that connects to socket harness which I replaced allready.
Old May 1, 2026 | 05:33 PM
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Rodney
 
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Check out my build thread to see how I used replacement sockets to rebuild the tail lights for my '72 442 convertible. The tail light work starts at post #346.
Rodney

https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...e-57404/page9/
Old May 1, 2026 | 06:47 PM
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70sgeek's Avatar
'72 Cutlass ragtop
 
Joined: Jun 2016
Posts: 1,328
From: Tampa, FL
I'll check my records - I know I replaced mine but I guess I recall after all now I had to retain the sockets in the housings on my '72 since they were essentially built into the housings - mine all work well so no replacements were needed.

But here's an Autozone listing for some that may work

https://www.autozone.com/p/dorman-in...t-85803/600544

Last edited by 70sgeek; May 1, 2026 at 07:01 PM.
Old May 1, 2026 | 08:05 PM
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lamp sockets are not part of the tail lamp wire harness...they are part of the lamp housings....so no, the don't come w/the new harnesses.

Look at cdrod's thread or get better housings w/good sockets. I probably have a pair of housings here that are somewhat "refinished".
Old May 24, 2026 | 07:35 PM
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Thanks for all the help and info. Installed new sockets and everything works great. Finally have all exterior lighting working. Now to get this thing to run right....
Old May 24, 2026 | 07:35 PM
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Thanks for all the help and info. Installed new sockets and everything works great. Finally have all exterior lighting working. Now to get this thing to run right....
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