Hey guys, I am looking to rewire a number of things in my car (6v with generator, 1154 bulbs) and am looking for a solution for the taillights. The car currently has 18g wire run all the way to the socket. When I run a jumper wire to the light, it gets much brighter. Factory was 16g, I want to run 14g. No big deal. But the taillight socket has a 6" pigtail. This terminates at the bulb with a small crimp on brass ball and spring. Is there a replacement for this? I believe I can reuse the spring, but the ball connector I cant find. I have found complete pigtails, but almost all are 18g.
When I rewired my '50 Ford I wanted 14 ga at the tail / signal light, and front park and signal bulbs. A friend of mine was rewiring a '49 Buick at the same time . We ordered a 100 pac of # RCT1PB pigtail ends from "The Repair Connector Store" www.repairconnector.com and split the package.We both have some left, but I do a fair bit of wiring repair so I use these fairly often. I'm sure you can buy them in many places, and maybe in smaller quantities.
Strip the insulation off right up to the brass, cut the wire leaving 1/2" on the brass. Solder your 16 gauge wire to this, but first slide a piece of shrink tube over the 16 gauge to cover the solder joint.
Thanks guys! The repair connector place sells a 10 pack for $5, shipping will probably cost me more than that! I will probably use @BJR s suggestion for the headlight connectors.
You might want to run the wire of choice though the socket as clearance for the wire and insulation can get pretty tight inside the socket and the spring in there. You might not have room for the 14 gauge.
If you really want to lo-buck it, use steel 1/16" pop rivets. Push out the mandrel, insert the wire with a bit sticking out (and I crimp the wire to the rivet body), then solder the wire/rivet head, leaving a solder 'dome' for the contact. There are different size rivet flanges, look for the smallest you can find.
Get the 14 gauge wire, strip a a short piece of insulation then mushroom the exposed copper. Solder the mushroom head to recreate the contact face... I did this when I converted a bulb holder from a low to high wattage bulb and it worked perfect. With dual filament you have to be carefull as the spring can short the crimp part of the terminals to ground.
I have been using ss pop rivet "heads" with no solder. I pay attention to the crimper I use, an old orange handled crimper/stripper with a very tight arc/anvil and a sharp pointer so as not to distort the body of the rivet
The Jalopy Journal
