Turn signal housing attachment (front) S.V.

[DenJr67]

assembling the 67 Alpine , I have new lenses and gaskets for the front turn signal housings , what is the factory method of attaching to the body ?
spring clip speed nuts and screws ? I am concerned that I will crack the lenses by tightening it all down to the body that way ?

I have some nice fine thread stainless screws and nylon stop nuts to extend all the way through the body but am still concerned of cracking the lenses sandwiching it all together.

maybe I am over thinking this and need to get a good set of body to lens housing rubbers (the ones I have seem mis-shaped)

any ideas ?

 

[DanR]

New rubber mounts are best.... and will help elimenate the shock.

Tighten but dont over tighten.

Spring clip speed nuts and screws work fine....

 

[Tom H]

Like Dan said, Spring clip speed nuts. But also note that those speed clips are what needs to be making the ground connection to the body to complete the assembly lighting circuit. I can't remember how it is assured that the screws contact the light housing.

Tom

 

[hartmandm]

I think you thread the screw through the light housing before the screw threads into the car body / clips and that makes the ground connection.

Mike

 

[Tom H]

Yes, but first it goes thru the plastic lens. It seems the screw would make only incidental contact with the housing, and might actually not make contact. It's been over 20 years since I worked on those housings, but it seemed to me the main problem was making sure the spring clip speed nut made good contact with the sheet metal of the body.

Tom

 

[mikephillips]

On mine I've run a wire with a ring on one end and bullet on the other from the turn signal housing to the headlamp ground location under the front hood buffers on each side. The ring end goes where one of the housing screws passes through it so it'll make good contact with the housing. Hasn't been an issue so far. Do the same with the tail light housings, ring on both ends with one on one of the housing studs and the other end attached to one of the gas tank supports on each side.

 

[Tom H]

Good idea, Mike.

 

[P. Scofield]

Yes, you are overthinking.

 

[Tom H]

Paul, I don't think he's overthinking it. Unless I am missing something. Can you explain how the mounting screw makes contact with the housing for a good ground path? The head of the screw gets tightened into the flange of the hole in the plastic lens, so that is not the contact. So I assume electrical contact is simply depending on the threads of the screw coming into contact with the wall of the hole in the housing somewhere. And if a little corrosion occurs near that contact you can easily lose continuity. No? And of, course the screw will probably make good contact with the speed nut. At least there you have lots of contact surface between the threads and the blades of the speed nut. And the speed nut needs to make good contact with the body- probably OK, if you are sure to remove any heavy paint (or rust) around the mounting hole. But it seems to me the weak link is getting the screw to make good contact with the housing.

Interesting that the designers provided a solid wire path to a ground clip for the headlights. I guess they correctly figured headlights are more critical than blinkers and side lamps

Tom

 

[P. Scofield]

It was just a funny.......thus the smiley face. As usual, humor on these forums seems to get lost in the seriousness of these high tech rigs.

:-O

 

[DanR]

HAve a look at Denjr' Avatar

That is a "Real Funny",

DanR

 

[Tom H]

Sorry, Paul. I missed the smiley!

Tom

 

[Chuck Ingram]

On mine I've run a wire with a ring on one end and bullet on the other from the turn signal housing to the headlamp ground location under the front hood buffers on each side. The ring end goes where one of the housing screws passes through it so it'll make good contact with the housing. Hasn't been an issue so far. Do the same with the tail light housings, ring on both ends with one on one of the housing studs and the other end attached to one of the gas tank supports on each side.

I agree but just needs a good ground

 

[mikephillips]

If you run the wire between the metal housing and the rubber gaskets and then put one of the screws through the ring it'll hold it against the lamp when tightened down. An as an advantage you don't need to keep a spot of bare metal where the screws go through the speed nuts since they won't need to serve as grounds. And use black wire since Lucas used black for grounds so it looks more like it belongs.

One thing than can cause cracks for repro lenses is that the molded shafts the screws go through usually aren't long enough. On originals they're long enough to reach the housing through the gasket so that the don't hardly compress it thus less push back against the edges by the gasket.

 

[DenJr67]

Great Tech advice

Thank you for the advice , I am rewiring the entire car with a Pete's wiring harness , and I will definitely add the additional grounds for the lamps along with adding a modern socket for the 194 style bulb.

I have some pretty ugly rubber base gaskets I think my Dad found on ebay a while back , they fit terrible and the finish is rough cast rubber.

I am going to order some new rubber bases from S.S. , if they fit well that will be a relief !
I will watch the lense to housing clearance to avoid cracking the lens !

 

[hartmandm]

Being curious I did a test. I removed all 3 mounting screws from the lenses + light housing. The ground connection remained. I had to pull the light housing out of the body opening for the marker lamp to go out. When I inserted the housing back into the body opening (without any screws) the marker lamp came on again. My conclusion is the light housing is making a connection via the body opening or via the clips for the screws mounted in the body opening.

Mike

 

[65beam]

turn signal

many years ago Tiger Tom told me how to cure the ground problem. it's very similar to mike's solution but takes a little more work. he told me to drill a hole between the two light sockets and use a small bolt to secure a ground wire to the housing. then you can secure the other end wherever you want. I drill the flange where the valance and fender meet ,use another bolt and ground problem gone. maybe five minutes time involved. you'll find this fix on all of my beams.

 

[Tom H]

Mike, Oh! So there must be posts cast onto the housing that bottom against the clips. And those posts also set the position of the housings, and sets the amount of compression of the rubber. That also answers the original question about how tight to make the screws. Basically you tighten them the same amount as you would any plastic lens.It's not like you are tightening against constantly compressing rubber. Although I now see that there is a more solid ground path, I still think it's a good idea to add a ground wire like either of the suggestions posted by Mike or 65Beam.

Tom

 

[rixter]

Yes, those nibs in the light assembly casting (red arrows in photo), are the path to ground, a nice point of failure. I took the opportunity to explicitly ground each light socket when I discovered the original running light sockets were corroded. I implemented a more modern socket that uses the same bulb type as the original. Both light sockets have ground wires going back to the grounding attachment where the headlight wires ground.

rick

 

[65beam]

turn signal

the clip used for grounding of the head lights is another source of trouble. if not properly cared for you'll lose the ground. how many never think to clean the connections until a problem pops up?