Loose taillight

[WradDad]

Hi all,

New to the forum, and to the world of Corvettes. I recently bought a '96 Collector Edition with the LT4.

There's a lot of great stuff here, and I've been able to resolve several issues with information found here!

I have one small problem that I haven't found any discussion of. The car has a loose taillight fixture. It's the outboard light on the passenger side. The lens itself is fine, it's the fixture behind it that's loose.

I can't see how it is attached, and the crappy Haynes manual I bought is no help. It says to reach up between the muffler and bumper fascia, but there's no way!

Has anybody run into this before? Or having removed the rear fascia, seen a way to reach the taillight from underneath?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Barry

[Ken]

...says to reach up between the muffler and bumper fascia, but there's no way!

Has anybody run into this before?

No, you're the first.

Seriously, before 1988 or thereabouts, the lenses themselves were attached from the backside of the tailights, and the only way to change the bulb was to reach up through the small opening between the rear bumper and the frame rails; a near impossible task if your arms are any larger than two inches around.

An alternative approach (in the early models) is to remove the license plate and reach through there, ...but that doesn't always work, so some people even remove the rubber piece that surrounds the gas filler tube and try to reach in that way.

A lot of us had to finally resort to bribing a neighborhood kid with skinny arms to reach in there for us (After providing detailed instructions of course! ), or have simply taken it to a dealer and let them deal with the headache, paying as I did, something like thirty dollars to replace a tailight bulb!

Also, Haynes is definitely an inferior manual to the ones offered from the manufacturer. Try Helm, Inc. for the manuals specific to the Corvette model you desire. You won't regret it.

[bohms]

Yes I too thought how the heck do you tighten these things???

Well after scratching the hell out of my arm and still not getting any where I discovered that if you take the license plate off there is a wide open area to reach right on in behind the lights. It is a little bit of a stretch to get to the far outboard lights but can be done without much difficutly. I believe the bolts are 10mm one on each side. careful not to torque them too much they are just plastic

I hope this helps

[WradDad]

Thanks folks, great suggestions! I'll check it out tonight and let you know what I find.

Barry

[WradDad]

Hey Ken,

I have to ask, what does it mean " The excellent is new forever"?



Barry

[Ken]

Originally posted by WradDad
Hey Ken,

I have to ask, what does it mean " The excellent is new forever"?



Barry

What does it mean to you?

Ok, ok. Some people may take that as being a smart-ass statement. It wasn't meant to be taken as such; it was meant to provoke thought and perhaps another viewpoint as to its meaning.

I found the saying actually, on a fortune cookie of all places! I take its meaning as something that is good, or "excellent" when new, is always going to be new.

Excellence endures, mediocrity doesn't.

_ken

[SPANISHVETTS]

If your hands are as fat and arthritic as mine it is impossible.
Lucky for me some of the mechanics are skinny fellows.

On the right side we had to remove the inboard light first and then reach through that hole to get to the outboard unit.

Round three of the 2003 Spanish Formula 3 Championship took place this weekend at the Jerez circuit in the south of Spain. Racing Engineering's Ricardo Mauricio finished the first race third with his teammates Lourenço da Veiga in fifth, Pedro Barral in sixth and Dennis Furchheim in tenth position. Race two brought the first victory for Ricardo in the Spanish F3 and saw Pedro in third and Lourenço in fifth.

Now that’s better,read the whole story.

[JonM]

Only one way to do it...become anorexic, get down to about 70 lbs...then change it... ...But seriously, follow Kens suggestions above. I just added Sequential Turn Signals ( Sequential Turn Signals - Part Deux ) and it wasn't easy. )