Tail lights rusted out

[sledguyron]

Hi All: I need some help. This is on a 1973 Sarfari Land Yacht. The tail lights are rusted out, not much left, light sockets are gone. Need to get access to the wires under the light housings to rebuild. Appears there is a cast alumimum piece the lights are mounted in or if you could remove this piece you would have access to the tail light wires. Any help would be appreciated, I am worried about this.

[arktos55343]

I have a '72 LY. If it is the same....as far as the lights themselves are concerned, you can get an LED replacement kit from LED4RV that includes 2 reflectors, 2 brake/turn and 2 reverse lights.

As for the wiring, you are correct that the wires/spring loaded pigtails run through the cast aluminum housing. The housing itself is riveted on at the corners and on each long side. I was able to get to mine because of a total restoration. I took the housings off, rehabbed them. My pots were in good shape, fortunately. So I bought the replacement kits from LED4RV, installed new spring-loaded pigtails. I then drilled through the skin from the inside into the corners of the aluminum housings, and reattached them with SS screws.

On the inside, the lights and wiring were covered by a fiberglass shell. Again, it was easier for me to get to since I was doing a total rehab. But for you, I would think it difficult to get to the wires without removing the interior skins...which you may not want to do at this point.

The only other way I could think of reaching the wiring...and since you need to rehab the light pots...is to remove the sealant around the exterior aluminum housing. Slide a thin sharp bar between the housing and the skin...and cut the rivets...allowing you to remove the entire housing...and gain access to the wiring.

I'm only suggesting this in the case that you absolutely are not going to remove interior skins. It's a danged if you do, and danged if you don't situation.

The problem then, of course, will be to reattach the housings. A PO of my TW had done some work on the lights in the past...and had drilled small holes through the housing at the corners of the blue stripe, and had then used small SS screws to attach the housings to the shell. Not an optimal solution...and I was glad that I was able to fix that 'fix' during my restore. I used a lot of butyl tape and tempro to seal those babies up on the inside.

[Inland RV Center, In]

Originally Posted by sledguyron

Hi All: I need some help. This is on a 1973 Sarfari Land Yacht. The tail lights are rusted out, not much left, light sockets are gone. Need to get access to the wires under the light housings to rebuild. Appears there is a cast alumimum piece the lights are mounted in or if you could remove this piece you would have access to the tail light wires. Any help would be appreciated, I am worried about this.

LED replacements are available for both the tail lights and the backup lights.

The key to the LED replacements for the tail lights, is can you still use the tail light monitor?

Those are also available.

Andy

[Belegedhel]

I had the same problem with my '73, the cans were completely rotten. Your rusted out cans are held in place with a couple of pop rivets. If you drill these out, you should be able to pull the can assembly out, and it should be trailing the wires that powered the light fixture. For replacement of the cans, you can order new cans, lenses, and all of that, but as I recall, the cans alone are about $40 a pop, which gets pretty expensive to rebuild two on each side.

So, I skipped the cans altogether and ordered some "sealed" LED replacement assemblies--I think I got them from outofdoorsmart.com. Anyway, I wired up a plug onto the existing wires, that would match the factory plug on the new lights, and then stuffed the lights into the holes where the cans originally were, using plenty of vulkem to seal/glue them in place (this was the recommended technique, by the way). So far, no leaks, the lights work, and the assemblies haven't fallen out on the street.

good luck!