Here’s a look at the indicator lights on the back of the RV…there’s a row of marker lights up on the upper edge of the roof, a set of 2 red brake lights that incorporate the running lights under the big red lenses, and those are dual filament type 1157 automotive, a center mounted multi-LED brake light assembly, and 2 amber lenses for turn signals using single filament type 1156 automotive, and finally, two white lenses covering the backup lights. Oh, and there’s a small bulb over the license plate. I haven’t changed any of these standard auto bulbs out for LED’s yet because they’ve not failed yet.
Until now…In April of ’19 I was working on the RV’s 7-blade trailer connector…had noticed that the metal bracket that held the connector had weakened over the years I’d been inserting and extracting the 7-blade power cord used to connect up my car to the RV for towing so I’d bought a new, stronger bracket. Since I was working in that area anyway, I upgraded the wiring for the 12 volt supply lead from the batteries to 10 gauge. During re-installation of the socket, I tested it of course and discovered that my left turn signal (LT) did not work right…it was intermittent. Hmm.
I knew it wasn’t something I’d done while working on the 7-blade socket so took the amber lens for the left turn signal light off and found that the bulb was rusted into the socket. And found that the bulb was good, but not making good enough contact to light sometimes. So then I took off all the lenses to check things and the sockets were all in bad shape. Had to soak them all with PB-Blaster and sit over night to loosen them enough to pull the bulbs out of the sockets. Jeese. So I needed a set of dual contact and single contact bulb sockets. To remove them first I needed to remove the brass machine screws holding the lenses on, than remove 4 self drilling sheet metal screws holding the plates to the rear of the RV. Those were in the fiberglass of the end cap really tight so I used my small impact driver to remove them. No sore wrist the next day from just using a screw driver. Yea!
And here’s what the inside of all the sockets looked like. Most of them had gobs of rust in there too.
A quick search of the internet showed that the socket style used for the light assemblies provided by the manufacturer to Winnebago are somewhat custom. Custom in that I couldn’t find anyone that carries the type of socket with a 90 degree tab for mounting except direct from China. I don’t have time to wait 6 to 12 weeks for an order that has to travel through customs so I needed to come up with something else.
And what I found at eBay were sets of 2 of the dual filament and sets of 2 single filament sockets. They didn’t have mounting tabs but I thought they could be adapted to my old sockets. If I could solder to them. Turned out I could. Here’s a picture of a commercially available single filament socket assembly followed by the dual filament socket assembly.
Note that this is just a picture of one of the several available styles of dual filament types of sockets, what I actually ordered from eBay shown in the below picture did not have the mounting tabs. The body looked just like the above picture, and there were 3 wires coming out of the bottom. One of which is a ground wire. [Edit Apr. ’21 – Found that while the single filament socket is still available, I could not find a suitable dual filament socket in any style. Using google or searching eBay so I suspect that ordering from China would be the only way to find something suitable. OR the style below could be modified to work for the typical RV light assembly.]
I did first try to find the entire replacement light assemblies, or rather price them out. There’s the manufacturer’s name and part number stamped right into the plate. I’d need four because all of the existing sockets were badly corroded and rusted and I knew the assemblies would be very expensive, if I found them at all. Which I didn’t. Of course I didn’t really look all that hard either. My assemblies still looked good with lenses in good shape so I didn’t want to just throw them away…
What I decided to do as a repair was to cut off most of the old socket leaving a bit so I could then solder the new socket in it’s place. And here’s how I ended up cutting them, using a cutting disk on my small rotary tool. I bought the rotary tool kit for $8 years ago at Harbor Freight and it’s really given me my money’s worth.
I started out trying to use a hack saw and then a pair of tin snips but this method of using the rotary tool turned out to make the cleanest cuts. The old socket is riveted to the plate but it can be bent a bit while working on cutting off the bottoms of the sockets.
And here’s how they looked (below) after all that work of cutting off the bottom of the bad sockets, grinding off any rust, lining up and soldering on the new sockets. I do have the tools and soldering equipment needed, on hand. Took hours to do all four of the plates but I don’t mind. Retired so have plenty of time. Wouldn’t take hardly any time now that I have a method. Had to make sure the bulbs could still be removed in future if they burnt out so the positioning of the new socket and the soldering had to be perfect, and also wanted to prevent rust, so I slathered the sockets with dielectric grease after installation. Each socket has 3 solder joints for strength.
I considered just using metal clamps and clamping the new sockets to the plate and that would have worked too. Or I could have tired to pry open the pressed ring and removed all of the old socket and tried to solder the new ones in but that looked too hard to me. Another thing that might have worked great is using these plastic zip tie cradles used for wire bundles. Drill a hole for a screw for the saddle, rest the socket on it, then zip tie it in place. I’m pretty sure as long as you mount it so the bulb is up allowing the heat to rise, they would likely last longer then you own your rig. Initially, I was aware of them, but then I thought that with summer sun beating on them inside the lens that they might rot out sooner than I wanted so I went with the soldering scheme. If I had decided to go that way there would only be one hole to drill, and the old bracket to remove, no need to adapt the new socket and solder it.
Here’s how they looked after soldering…
After all that was done, remounted them all and tested. The running, brake and turn signals all worked so buttoned up that project.
During testing of the above lights, also discovered that the center mounted brake light wasn’t working right. There was some light, but it was dim. First I unscrewed it from the fiberglass and clamped the wires so they wouldn’t disappear behind, then cut them. On the bench, found that the entire assembly is fully sealed. Grrr. It’s designed to be thrown away. Except that’s not the case for a DIY’er like myself.
Had to cut it open using the rotary tool and hacksaw but at least it has a plastic case which made it easy. Didn’t look too bad inside, not much corrosion and no rust, but found that of the 5 high intensity LEDs inside four of them had gone bad. So what I did was remove them all and replace with a strip of tape type LEDs found in rope lighting. It’s not as bright even with the 8 LEDs on the strip section I used but pretty close. And it works fine along with the two large brake lights on either side of the RV. And even if one of the brake lights on either side burns out, this center light will keep me legal.
This was another case where I couldn’t find a 100% direct replacement for the entire assembly on line so had to adapt. After I’d cut open the case and replaced the LEDs with new, I used Aluminum tape to close and seal the case. Though it’s not as bright as I wanted, the LEDs are bright enough to see fine during indirect afternoon sun and fine in the dark where they’re needed the most.
The light sockets are 17-18 years old so it’s not unusual for them to be rusted but with the proper tools and equipment it doesn’t take much to repair them. If I had been in another town with more auto parts stores, I might have found bulb sockets with tabs on them which would have made the repairs to the light assemblies much easier…but it wasn’t to hard to adapt. I’m pretty happy with how the repairs turned out, and it only cost me time and $8 for the new sockets.