I took the 'Vert out for a nice cruise last night and had it brought to my attention that my right side tail ights were out. This morning I looked for the cause of the problem and found that my tail lamp housings were full of water and that the bulbs had shorted out. Closer inspection revealed that the gasket was dirty and flattened out, especially around the two upper lens screw pockets. How to fix the problem without replacing the gaskets? Silicone? No, once that stuff cures you will never get the lens off again. Think man, think...... Finally it comes to me, spread some Vaseline on both sides of the gasket to help make a waterproof seal. I cleaned the grit and grime off as best I could and greased that gasket up. I also cleaned the lamp pockets, they were greasy, wet and almost black and I hit them with some white spray paint to help the tail lamps reflect more light. The improvement in brightness was quite noticeable so I ended up doing the other side to keep appearances uniform. Some new replacement lamps and I am on the road again!
Interesting about using the vaseline for the gaskets. Mine were quite dirty as well before I cleaned them. I was going to order a new set of gaskets when the LED taillights are ready to order. I have heard of some guys drilling small holes in the bottom of the taillight housings to let the water out as well.
Heat from the exhaust gas can cause those problems for the tailight gaskets, too. make sure you tail pipe(s) is extending past the bumper.
That reminds me of years ago you would see a lot of cars with melted tailights from having too short of a tailpipe. Seems like it was mostly Buicks, but then again I may only remember the Buicks. :laugh:
Many a rubber bumper car wound up needing a new bumper because the old one melted from lack of exhaust system maintenance. My exhaust pipe tip extends about 1 1/2" beyond the bottom of the bumper. I hope that is enough to keep my tail lamp lenses safe, they are getting harder to find and more expensive too.
for '55s; It also, causes the taillight housing chrome to pit. For '55s it's hard to find right hand (exhaust side) taillight housing that are'nt pitted. it's not so much of a problem for the back up light housing; the same part fits both sides. I've got a stainless steel extension on mine (well, I did; have one. I just got all new exhaust today! the 30 yrear old extension got thrown out with the old tailpipe! )
>>Anyone have this problem using the N25 bumper set up? I'm going to have to make sure my N25 tips stick out enough when I get them installed!
How are, your lights holding out? A few years ago; I replaced the Roadmaster's tail light housings with some from EBAY. The factory pressed in bulb receptacle had been removed from the replacements. I had to adhoc some NAPA generic bulb receptacles onto the pigtails. Eventually; I got it all working............. But, I check them regularly. I'm not, so sure of; my wiring skills.............
The gaskets are to keep liquid water (rain, sleet, snow) out of the lamp assembly. You really don't want the lamp assembly to be airtight because of condensation issues.
