Topic: Tag Light Wire

[jwc66k]

Is there a secret to getting the rubber boot off?

The "trick" is to press the light socket out, boot and all. To do that, assuming that everything is disassembled, force the wire up where the bulb was and clip the terminal off - leave about 1/8 inch wire on the terminal. Now the wire can slide out of the boot. The plastic insulating base and spring are also free so don't lose them. Find a socket that will fit where the bulb was and, with a long enough extension, you can "press" out the socket and boot. You don't need to take it off at all. Besides, you don't want to plate the socket and its innards any way. You can slide a new section of insulating sleeving over the wire before you reassemble the socket. To reassemble, put everything back the way it was in the socket, wire thru the boot, spring, plastic insulator and pull enough wire thru so it stays. Strip off 1/8 inch of wire insulation and solder the terminal to the wire. This is critical - make sure that the solder joint does not bind up at the base of the socket or the bulb won't go in and lock. Of course, if you happen to have a replacement terminal handy, you can use that. If you are lucky, you may be able to remove the clipped off wire from the old terminal. The ones I've seen are crimped and sometimes self-destruct if you get too aggressive.
One more thing. The two rivets that hold the lamp "thingy" to the mounting frame are not supposed to be gold zinc plated. I drill out the olds ones and disassemble those two pieces. More often than not, the plating process leaves some "liquid" behind and it oozes out between the two pieces. I use new rivets, but if you opt to not remove the rivets, you "may" be able to remove enough of the gold from the head of the rivet by using an ink eraser.
Jim   

[Philma]

I already removed the wire and actually opened the crimp on the terminal, so I can replace the wire and re-crimp it with some pliers. The socket is really stuck in there so I am soaking it in WD-40 to try and clean out the joint. I did already try a socket but it didn't move so I'll try it after a few days of soaking. I have some stainless rivets I am using on the heater box that look like a match. They however are a pronged crimp so I will need a new crimp tool to roll them over rather than split it into the 8 legs.

Thanks for the step by step.

[Philma]

I didn't wait, I went out and tried it after soaking overnight and it cam out fairly easily. I did look at the rivets and they are a different size from the heater box ones so I'll need to order some.
I have seen it mentioned before but is there a good source for a replacement grommet? Mine is a bit rough but not too bad. I will look at some donor lights a friend has.
I did find the wire sheath and placed an order.

Thanks again

[Maksim27]

Does anyone know if the 65-68 grommet is reproduced for the license plate light to the same specs.  I can only find grommets for 1969-1971 that are similar to those years and are Mopar grommets.

Also does anyone reproduce a black wire with the white letters ingrained.  Its easy to find the correct reproduction wire but to have the white letters marked is impossible to find.  Maybe someone makes the white letters using laser etch.

[J_Speegle]

Also does anyone reproduce a black wire with the white letters ingrained.  Its easy to find the correct reproduction wire but to have the white letters marked is impossible to find.  Maybe someone makes the white letters using laser etch.

Not aware of any one reproducing or marking the wiring. Printing on round rubber or plastic takes some special inks, processes and stamps from what I've seen with others that are doing this to much larger/thicker items on the market. Once you get that addresses there are often font issues (current verses originally) that must be addressed. No reason going through all this work and not do it 100% exact/correct.

If you can figure it all out you could be the "tag/license plate light wire guy"

 

[Maksim27]

I do restore the license plate lights, its just I'm running out of original wires and grommets.  I can't even find the correct pig tails for 65-68.   For 69-71 the pigtails are available just not for earlier lights.

Having a new reproduction Factory looking wire is nice and soft pliable vinyl, just having no letters doesn't seem 100% concours to me.  I know many original white letters after 55 years wear off, and finding NOS wires or license plate lights is nearly impossible these days.  I remember I saw one NOS 67 light sell for 300 a couple months ago. The light did have some rust stains but the wire looked excellent with all the letter markings.  Also, had a FoMoCo box.

[rrenz]

I believe I used a wire cover from a oil pressure sending wire pigtail I had lying around. that seemed to be close to what I had originally. I cobbled a reproduction and parts of my original together. My original was too far gone to save. re stamped the part number and looks about as good as I could hope for.

[jwc66k]

Try Rhode Island Wiring http://www.riwire.com/ under the conduit section. They have been a go to company for miscellaneous wiring parts for me for decades.
Jim

[Maksim27]

Did you re-stamp the part number into the wire using white letters.