all,
i have a 67 convertible whose taillights are driving me insane. I've replaced several of the tail light sockets with the standard white socket from various online resellers and the bloody things simply do not stay in place. Its a common routine to find all my bulbs/sockets laying on the floor of the trunk.

have tried bending the metal flanges to put more pressure on the "sides' of the hole of the tail light assembly, to no avail.

There doesnt appear to be anything holding them in place but friction, so I am hesitant to drill some form of hook/loop assembly into the housing. As these cars have been around for 45 years, I have to think there is some part I am just missing. Is there supposed to be a rubber gasket or something to help these things from falling out?

Regards

When you figure this out, let me know. I have same problem in my '68 vert.(actually, just 1 or 2 sockets) There's no gasket. The socket needs to ground on the housing.

Interesting, I have never seen a tail light socket fall out of any of my 'birds. (around 15 or so, times six bulbs = 90 sockets)

On rare occasion one will pop loose, but I've never seen them fall out. They are generally VERY tight to remove.

Either the housings have been ground out, or the wrong size or type of socket must be going in. I always use original sockets, so I can't comment on any replacement ones. And yes, the socket needs to ground to the housing to keep all the electrical gremlins out of your car.

Is it only a few that fall out, or all of them? Any way to measure or compare differences to the ones that are not falling out?

I replaced my rear light harness (along with all the others) and it comes with exact copies of the OEM sockets. Nary a problem. You might want to considered replacing the entire rear light harness (45 year old wiring anyway) with one of the excellent reproductions from M & H or American Autowire,

^^THIS^^^

My car did the same thing and I replaced the rear harness with a M&H harness. EXACT COPY OF THE FACTORY WIRING. I have used M&H harness for the rear, engine and front harness and they all are perfect.

http://www.wiringharness.com/

I'll add a small warning. After installing the rear harness the backup sockets are a bit tight. So much so its a biatch to get them out lol. The harness a little over $100 and well worth the effort. It takes less than a few minutes to install.

Mine originals kept falling out as well. I tried the plastic ones from the local parts store and the were better, metal ones worked the best for me.

Mine fell out all the time, I replaced mine many years ago with (Ford) metal sockets , hardwired ea with its own ground...never had problems after....they were actually a bit hard to get in and out , but never fell out again...