[Farmall] Repairing IH "flat back" lamps

[Mike Sloane]

That's great, Jim - thanks. A member of another Farmall group was asking 
about them, and I wrote that I would try to find the solution. The going 
price for replacements is $75 each, so I suspect some folks will try to 
see if they can repair the old ones before they have to give up and 
plunk down that kind of money.

Mike

On 5/2/2011 10:44 AM, Jim Becker wrote:
> Several years back I tried replacing the bulb in one of those units.  I
> wrote up the process somewhere, maybe mailed it to this list.  Could be you
> saw that.  The original bulb is essentially the same as an 1133 except it
> has a threaded tip rather than a contact nub.  Basic steps were remove the
> sealed unit, cut the crimped edge off the outside, remove the original bulb
> and solder a replacement in ( a little tricky to get the right depth).  I
> found a small nut that matched the original threads (I think it was a brass
> thumb type).  Solder the nut on the tip of the bulb.  I was careful not to
> heat the original solder too much as I assume it would blow the vacuum and
> ruin the new bulb.  Reassemble the lamp.  This requires a good reflector.  A
> good gasket is needed as that is all that will keep water out after the fix.
> I did this mainly just to see if I could as replacement sealed units were
> not available at the time.  It seemed to work OK.  The soldered on nut
> sticks out more than the original, which can be seen by the close observer.
> I didn't have a tractor that needed it at the time and it is still sitting
> on a shelf here.  Between the effort required and the need for a very good
> burned out unit, I'd probably just go for one of the replacement units as
> long as they are available.
>
> Jim Becker jim.becker at verizon.net
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mike Sloane
> Sent: Monday, May 02, 2011 8:25 AM
> To: Farmall/IHC mailing list
> Subject: [Farmall] Repairing IH "flat back" lamps
>
> I remember, back a few years, there were instruction for repairing the
> IH "flat back" so-called sealed beam lamps used on some '50s IH
> tractors. They weren't at all like true sealed beam lamps - there was
> just a regular bulb crimped into a reflector with no socket. Someone
> posted the instructions for disassembling the lamp so you could replace
> the bulb. I thought I had saved the instructions, but I can't find them
> now. Does anyone else have that information or a URL? I tried Google
> with no luck.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Mike
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