Bad swivel light ball & socket

[Rick T]

Has anyone discovered a way to repair vintage interior wall lights like this one? (photo hopefully attached). The swivel socket no longer keeps the ball in place. The lamp part pops out and dangles. Looks like a p.o. tried to crimp the socket with pliers, which didn’t work. I have two lights with the same problem and one good one.

[53flyingcloud]

Rick T
The picture didn't attach..Could you try again?
ciao

[Rick T]

Maybe this will do it...?

[Inland RV Center, In]

Rick.
I could sell thousands of the swivel and ball. It has not been available for many years.

Best way to fix it? Replace the fixture. Many have tried a fix, but nothing worked more than a time or two.

Andy
inhlandrv.com
airstreamparts.com
airstreamcandy.com

[Rick T]

Thanks for your reply Andy. It's just that the replacements look too modern and I wanted to keep the old look. Oh well, maybe I'll do replacements now and prowl the junkyards later.

[overlander64]

Greetings Rick!

I experienced the same problem with my '64 Overlander. The fixture was a bit differet, but the problem was the same. I went with new lamps of a very similar design that you can see in the photo below:



The ones that I purchased are polished brass, and I can't be sure whether they were available in any other finishes. They were available as single or double lamp fixtures. The only issue is with mounting on an exterior wall if there is a curve - - the base of the fixture will almost certainly need to be modified.

I purchased my fixutres from Ace Fogdall RV in Cedar Falls, IA. Their web site adreess is below:

Ace Fogdall RV, Cedar, Falls, IA

I am fairly certain that they are still available. Florence in the parts department ordered the fixtures for me. I believe that these fixtures were ordered about this time last year.

Kevin

[BobbyW]

Don't throw your old ones away...Check out the price !!!

Ebay auction of old lights Auction is now closed at US $53.02.

My old ones are mint compared to this.

-BobbyWright

[Rick T]

Overlander '64 Thanks for your photo. Those lights look great in your trailer. My plan is to move my one good swivel light to the back wall and have two new matching lights in the front. I had seen the brass cone lights in an RV catalog and wondered if they would work in mine. Thanks to your post it now looks like I should be careful before ordering. I need to make sure the new ones will fit my curved walls.
Bobby W. The e-bay lights look a little too rough for me and I'm amazed at the prices. I plan to keep my non-functional swivel lights in the hope that perhaps someday in the future scientists will find a way to bring them back to life.
Thanks everyone for your help.

[airstreamcaravel]

Rick,

Call or write Tad Talyor at He's got em!

I replaced a couple for my 67 caravel from him. Kinda pricey
but worth it to keep your baby original.

Dave

Tad's web site:

http://www.healthy-homes.com Go to "Tag Sale"
Bottom of page..

[airstreamcaravel]

There are a couple for sale on e-bay NOW .. a gold tinted and a silver one ... 7 days to go yet ...

Call Tad ...

Dave

[Rick T]

Thanks for the tip. Tried calling TT several times and got his phone machine. Since I am not able to catch him when he's in I left a msg. to call me collect. Have not heard from him so far. I'll try again this week, in case he's been away.

[snraw]

Rick T.
I repaired mine by makeing a bracket so that the wire would go through and took it off then put the bracket in a vice and ground a pair of vice gripes to the shape iwanted and squezed the fitting many time and adjusting the plyers every timr until the ball was tight in the socket.Jack #17571

[eubank]

Hummm. Our old MG's ball-and-swivel mechanisms for the rearview mirrors died some years ago, and I devised a repair involving a very special drilling right up through the mechanism and a long, long screw. (That was about 7 or 8 years ago, and the "fixes" are still holding.) I wonder if a similar wonder could be worked in this case. Maybe I should try to locate the old dead fixtures of this type that "came with" our rig...

Lynn