58 rear wiring harness

[Brandon T.]

I purchased a new rear wiring harness and need to know how to remove the wiring from the rear tail light socket.

[William C.]

Re: 58 rear wiring harness

remove the bulb, then the harness connection should rotate out of the "J" slot that retains it and pull out the back of the housing.

[Brandon T.]

Re: 58 rear wiring harness

I have already removed the bulb and tried to turn the connector from the rear but did not seem to want to turn. I noticed the new connector has plastic ears on it. So are you saying I should be able to turn it a 1/4 turn from the rear and it should come out.

[William C.]

Re: 58 rear wiring harness

That should be the program, but after 50 years of "crud" holding them in place, I'd use some solvent like Kroil to clean things out. The print I had was for a '61, but I believe the 58-60 sockets work similarly.

[Brandon T.]

Re: 58 rear wiring harness

I had to cut my old wires and push the connector out of the socket from the back toward the bulb. I called lectric limited and they tried to say something was wrong with my tail light socket. Both of my tail lights are made exactly alike. It looks like it has to be installed from the inside which would mean I would have to cut my new harness. If I was installing a pig tail it would work perfect but would have to be spliced. The back side of the socket is oval shaped that is why it can't be pulled out from the back. I have looked at pictures of other harness and they do look like the one I got from Lectric limited but I can't find a close up picture of a tail light socket to see if it is different that mine. Maybe someone has made some type of modification to my tail lights. I sure hate to cut my new harness.