tmaleck

My newly acquired 67 Cutlass Supreme has a damaged front turn signal housing. There are no contacts or wires, just an empty extention with a bulb rattling around. Looks like the socket is stamped into the housing. Is there a fix or is the housing and headlamp bracket in need of replacement?

Thanks for any advice,
Tim

rocketraider

You can probably find a generic metal-bodied tail/parklight socket with pigtails at any good parts store, which will allow you to salvage the original socket and not go thru the aggravation of finding another bucket assembly. While you're there pick up a socket cleaning brush- NAPA or CarQuest will probably be your best bet to find that.

Get the remains of the bulb out first, and any of the insulator disc and springs that's left. You may have to use a pick for that if the socket is corroded. Clean the socket with the brush, then take the insulator, springs and pigtails from the new socket and transfer them into the car's socket. The insulator disc should have a notch in it to orient it correctly for double contact bulbs.

Test your wiring connections to make sure the right filament lights in the bulb for park and turn signals, then when that's right, seal it where the wires pass thru the socket body and make your permanent wiring connections. Won't hurt to put a little vaseline or dielectric grease in there to retard further corrosion.

Octania

Excellent procedure. The only thing I can think of to add is, the metal socket sometimes has a dimple to retain the fiber disk. To work around that, you can either tap the dimple out gently [workbench activity], or grind/ relieve the fiber disk to accommodate the dimple.

Oh, and I think the factory used a rubber "pair o' pants" boot to seal the wires yet allow them to move a little in & out as the bulb seats and whatnot. If you just glob silicone over the socket and wires, it'll be glued tight. Use the factory seal if at all possible. Otherwise... ??

rocketraider

Chris makes a good point about using silicone to seal the wires. I prefer dum-dum sealer in an app like this myself, but you often have to go to an HVAC supply to get it. Sometimes you'll find it at Lowes or similar.

If the wires are gone, odds are the original rubber seal is too. The new socket should come with some type of boot that you may be able to transfer to the old socket.

Should you be fortunate enough that the socket end of the original wiring plug is still there, use that too. You'll have a neater connection. Otherwise use fully insulated crimp terminals- best brand you can find, not the cheesy mess you get in a terminal kit at Advance Auto or Harbor Freight. Those have their place, but I always like work like this to look like someone cared about what they were doing. Search out Rob's wiring thread to make up foolproof and weathertight electrical connections.

tmaleck

To follow up on my post, I took the good advice here and bought a Dorman 85802 generic socket. The guts fit almost perfectly. I had to trim for the lower nub as suggested, but after that it worked great. The whole job took less than an hour.

Tim