Found one of my trunk lights broken.

[Scott-E]

I have no idea when or where it happened. It could be due to age and vibration. I just found it when walking by the bike as I was getting ready to go for a ride. I guess it's time to upgrade them to modern LED lights. Harbor Freight has those 6" oval LED trailer lights for $15 each. They will fit in the trunk by modifying it. I know it's heresy to some but it's an upgrade that adds safety at night with much brighter LED tail, turn, and brake lights. I'll need to enlarge each pair of light holes to 6-3/4" X 2-1/2" openings. I'm going to make an adapter with an outside diameter the same as the current holes that will fit a standard 2 1/2" hole saw. Cut the holes to the new size and then connect them with a jig saw. Then those LED lights will pop right in with the rubber grommet that comes with them. I want the brake and turn signal functionally I had with the original lights in addition to tail lights Craig originally intended them to be. They came with dual filament 1157 sockets but only the tail light filament was used with just a 2 wire pig tail that connected to the tail light circuit on the bike. I made a new connector on my bike and along with LED 1157 bulbs added brake and turn signal functionally. I really like that because those trunk lights can be seen above my Bushtec trailer when I'm pulling it in addition to the lights on the trailer.

 

[Larry Fine]

Some of the older trunks and saddlebags came with dual-contact sockets that were for single-filament bulbs, not 1157s. These bulbs did not use the bulb base shell as a conductor, only the two wires, because they knew the non-metallic parts would not provide a ground for the sockets.

You can identify the sockets because the two alignment pin slots are even instead of uneven, as are the pins on the bulb. See bulb types 94,
1076, and 1142.

 

[Scott-E]

Some of the older trunks and saddlebags came with dual-contact sockets that were for single-filament bulbs, not 1157s. These bulbs did not use the bulb base shell as a conductor, only the two wires, because they knew the non-metallic parts would not provide a ground for the sockets.

You can identify the sockets because the two alignment pin slots are even instead of uneven, as are the pins on the bulb. See bulb types 94,
1076, and 1142.

Military vehicles use bulbs like that. Even the new replacement lights with LED's still use those type bulb sockets. They just plug in LED lights with the shell made to fit in the sockets. The old 24 volt filament bulbs had two 12 volt filaments internally wired in series so they looked like 1157 bulbs. The manufacturer made them that way so they only had to stock 12 volt filament elements and used a machine setup to make 1157 style bulbs. The parts people would just keep them in a pidgin hole type shelf where anyone could walk by and see what was in it. It was handy for us because we could just grab what we needed along with other common hardware items when we were working on vehicles that needed service or when rebuilding or upgrading them. Those bulbs would just magically walk away so often the parts people had to start keeping them behind the parts counter where you had to give them a stock number and the serial number of the vehicle it was going to be used on. They were restocking that pidgin hole with way too many bulbs for the number of vehicles we were working on. It was a pain because we always changed out all the bulbs in all vehicles because they are Military vehicles and was a requirement. I wonder how many people took them home and ended up with strange electrical problems they could not figure out.

 

[Kynan C.]

Scott, do you have a picture of it mounted?

 

[Scott-E]

Scott, do you have a picture of it mounted?

I haven't cut my trunk to mount them yet. Every time I get ready to do it I chicken out. Apparently I can't bring myself to cut my trunk and mount them. Somewhere there are pictures of that having been done here on this forum but I haven't had time to look for them. They looked right at home and even look like what the factory would do if they were still being produced today. I used a little plastic glue to patch my cracked lens and have it mounted so it's at the bottom so you really need to look hard to find it. I will eventually do it but I've got to get my mind set for it. Having been a mechanic since I was 12 years old I've seen more than enough hack jobs so to me cutting a perfectly fine peace of gear feels like hacking it up. I'll see if I can find those pictures and post a link.