72 cutlass taillight

[Guest andyp]

Hi, I'm working on sons 72 cutlass,taillight not working.Removed bumper and taillight housing .Broke plastic pig tail that goes into top taillight housing.Taillight socket spins but can not remove.I would like to replace wiring pig tails and sockets if needed.How do you remove wiring pigtails and are replacements available .Do the sockets need to be removed if so how do you remove.Thank you Andy

[rocketraider]

I think the socket is swaged into the taillight housing and will take some tearing up to remove it. If it will spin the ground path may be broken which could cause your taillight problem.

With bulb out, look in the socket and you will see a plastic or micarta plate that the bulb contacts poke thru. There's a spring behind there that keeps the contacts tensioned against the contacts on the bulb itself. The wires go thru a seal sleeve, that if you snip the plug off the wire it can usually be pulled out from the front. You can then remove the contact plate and spring and clean the socket good. You should be able to get a new contact plate and pigtails at the auto parts store. Simply thread its wires thru the sleeves, splice the plug back on and you'll have a new socket for all practical purposes.

The plates have a small notch in them to make sure they can be installed only one way. The new wires will probably be black, so mark which wire is which before you snip.

[Guest andyp]

Thank you Glenn for the quick reply.I'll head to the auto store and work on this today.Andyp