i have a 1964 LeSabre wagon and one of the blinker/break lights went out. so i got a couple new ones and changed them both (left and right side) they are 1157 bulbs. now neither of the lights work and i am confused. when i turn on the head lights, the tail lights light up but the break lights and turn signals don't work.(break lights and turn signals do not work with headlights on or off) i have looked at the fuse panel and couldn't see a burnt fuse but i guess i need to get a multi meter and check it. are the break lights connected to the flasher relay? i know they sue the same filament on the bulb but i don't know how it is wired. does anyone have any ideas on what could be causing my lights not to work? Thanks for any help John PS sorry about the horrible grammar
Are you sure that the car takes 1157s??? If you look at a 1156, it looks exactly the same, but only has one contact on the bottom. Easy mistake to make...ask me how I know.......:laugh:
i took 1157's out and the lights worked fine a week ago. the weird part is the right side had a burnt out bulb and when i changed both the bulbs they both stopped working
i got the multi-meter out last night and checked everything ground, wires, fuse, flasher relay and the break switch. everything checked out fine so i put the bulbs back in and was going to take it to a shop and get them to track the problem down for me (i really know nothing about electrical). well when i got in the car to move it and hit the brakes i saw the fence behind me glow red, checked the blinkers and they work now also. im glad the problem went away but now im more confused than when they didnt work at all but at least they still work today thanks for everything John
The GM design for taillights uses a housing with small springs and contacts. The factory packs the housings with grease to prevent corrosion. The grease gets hard, and the springs don't press the plunger into the bulb. And, the contacts get corrored as well. Put a generous dab of dielectric grease on all exterior bulbs.
I think paul is right! I have had the same problem with my 69 convertible. I am removing the old sockets with the crapy spring contacts which touch the end of the 1157 bulb and am installing the new aftwermarket sockets which will fix the problem. I think when you removed your old 1157's and you have to push in a bit while turning them so they come out...you probably pushed the contacts in a bit and they stuck. And when you installed th new bulbs the spring loaded contacts just didn't work themselves back out. And then when the weak springs did push the contacts back out you wondered what was up. The spring contact was a poor design and Buick actually came out with an update bulletin in 1970 for the dealers to fix the problem prone tail light sockets. Someone... (I don't know who on the V8 website) mailed me a copy of that bulletin. Do a search in here under tail lights or sockets and I think you can find the thread from a moth ago or so. Eric:3gears:
