[Steveman]

Hi,
Does anyone know how you get to the reversing light bulbs on a 67? It looks like you undo the nuts on the trunk side but then the rear light fitting won't come off unless the bumper is off. That can't be right? Surely the whole extension doesn't come off?

I also need to clean out the inside of the light fitting as the rear lights are almost impossible to see. I will clean up the earths as well but I suspect the lens cover is cloudy. I've polished the outside but maybe the inside too. Thats if I can get into it.

Any ideas?

 

[lincolndriver]

sorry it took soo long to get back to you, the reverse light socket comes out through the back. wiggle the socket back and forth(up and down)till it comes out.
the light assembly should come out without taking the bumper off. if your brake lights look dim, then you should clean, and paint the buckets. I used,"Almost Chrome" spray paint, several coats then polished them.(Finally a good use for that spray paint!)
hope this helps
FWIW, the bumper has 4 bolts that hold it to the frame, you might have to loosen the bolts to swing it out of the way

 

[Steveman]

Thanks for that. The bulb in the centre of the housing is only the brake/tail light. With that out I can see where the reversing bulb is (the centre of the light unit) but I have no idea how to get to it.

Unfortunately all four of my bumper bolts are rusted so I was hoping to avoid taking it off to get the light housing off. I can get I think six of the nuts off the back of the light cluster but the two bottom ones remove the whole extension. There must be another bit that comes off just for the bulb? Do you have any pics of the bit you mean?

 

[lincolndriver]

I may have misled you, ill check again and will have an update later on this afternoon

Ok, i just took mine apart and its easier than it looks
1)remove nuts, you can remove just the 4 nuts closest to the inner circle of the fixture OR just go ahead and remove all eight.(recommended)
2)remove the studs,(that was the part i was missing) they are not in very tight and the housing is only pot metal. you can use a small pair of vice grips on the very end. avoid boogering the threads.
3) remove the assembly, requires a little wiggling, be patient.
4)look on the back of the housing, remove the two phillips head screws(cross point for you old military)
5) now you can get to the reverse light.
hope this helps. in the pic you can see the removed studs

 

[Steveman]

Thanks for that. I tried to get the studs out but couldn't so had to take whole bumper assembly off. No real problem though. Now I'm going to repaint the housings (they were a very dull metal) and renew the bulbs. Should be a whole lot better once I'm done.

Many thanks for your help LincolnDriver.

 

[6Dsick]

Can you get a hold of a cleaner called "Purple Power" in NZ? It's amazing stuff. It worked really well when I rebuilt my tail lights. You can watch this stuff just eat the tree sap off w/o harming your paint. My $0.02, good luck.

Also consider replacing old filament style bulbs with brighter and longer lasting LED bulbs.

 

[Steveman]

I haven't heard of Purple Power here. Most websites mention these cool products that only seem to be available in the States, and sometimes its hard to work out what the similar products are here.

I hadn't thought of swapping to LED bulbs. Do they normally fit the same bulb holders or would I need to cut them off and rewire new holders?

 

[Steveman]

Ok, I got the light units out, stripped them, made new rubber gaskets, painted the reflector buckets and cleaned the lenses. I aslo replaced both burnt out reversing light bulbs. Now its all back together and the difference is impressive. Just painting the buckets made a huge difference I think.

I've checked and the LED bulbs are available here although I can't find ones that would replace a dual filament type bulb. At this stageI don't need them though as everything is heaps brighter.

Thanks guys for your help, especially Lincolndriver for providing the helpful pics.

 

[lincolndriver]

glad i could help a fellow 67 owner!!