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Kev, nothing like progress and success to spur you on to the next challenge! I've truly enjoyed following your story.

Guys,

Just found this bulb interchange chart. It gives the 6/12/24 volt bulb variants for most styles, and also alternative numbers within the same bulb/base family.

bri-lux.com/auto-1.htm

Kev, thanks for the link to this bulb chart. Recommend the address be incorporated into this site in the Parts X-Ref section. This is going to be most useful.

(o{I}o)

Here's another great source of information on old car bulbs and electrical:

donsbulbs.com/cgi-bin/r/t.pl/library.html

I few quick thinks tonight.

I pulled out the wonky taillight and ran a jumper wire between one of the threaded mounting rods and the a known good ground in the trunk. Everything worked fine. So it means the housing was not grounding well enough. So I wire brushed all the mounting points, and buttoned everything back up. Works good now.

Next I checked the fuse box on as the cigar lighter feed was dead. Sure enough the fuse was blown. So I replaced the fuse, and then checked for voltage at the lighter socket. Voltage looked good. Plugged in 12v drop light, worked great. Put the cigar lighter itself back in and push it in to test it, and snap, the fuse blew. Looks like there is a direct short in the lighter element itself. I'll deal with that wayward element another day. Not that I really would ever use it, but I can see someone pushing it in, and I really don't want have to keep digging under the dash to replace fuses.

Next I found the correct underdash and dome light bulbs and installed them and tested them with the door switches. All is good.

Still need to find the backup light bulbs. None of the local parts stores carry the correct 12v bulb I need.

Quote:

Just read this--great description HH, as usual. If I may explain a little further, as the voltage in the battery declines from sitting the solenoid coil in the clock still tries to do the same amount of work and not having enough voltage will try to make up the difference with current (amps)and this is where the trouble comes in. The excessive current burns (pits) the contact points, or as Howard describes, they may stick together and then you have problems. It is best to disconnect the battery in the car if it is to sit for any period of time of inactivity (for many reasons, the clock being but one) and just deal with re-setting the clock when you use the car. Perhaps those Battery tenders prevent this from happening, I don't have first hand experience with those.

Trying to figure out what the best style of voltage reducer would work for the clock in the car. I need something that is not going to draw a constant inefficient draw since the clock is wire to a constant battery source. I see there are LM7806 based regulators (aka Runtz), but those have a 1-1.5 amp max load on a big heatsink. I'm wondering if a simple resistor type of reducer would be better as the clock is not a constant draw, but simple cycles on and off every minute or so.

Clock uses a 3amp max fuse, wonder what the nominal load on it is. I guess I would need to figure that out to calculate the required resistor.

The commercial blower motor reducers all seem to be around 1.5 ohms for a max of 4amps but those are sustained loads. Since the solenoid is such a brief and mostly inductive load almost have to calculate for inrush current only. That is where a decade box would come in handy. Start high then just dial in a lower value till you get close and solenoid is reliable..

I wonder since the clock really pulses instead of a constant load if one the LM7806 based regulators (aka Runtz) would be ok. The LM7806 has built in current protection as well. Perhaps two wired in parallel for a safety margin. LM7806 are pretty cheap, and should be available at Radio Shack.

Maybe but since the solenoid would almost be a direct short to the chip, wonder if the protection would be fast enough or if it is, maybe too sensitive. Like you said, fairly cheap to try though. Maybe they have some 1 or 5 watt resistors in a low enough range you could parallel a couple to try as well..