Hi All,

Does anyone know how the tail light bulb housings are secured to the tail light assembly? I've got two that are falling out and I can't seem to get them to lock back into the assembly. There's another thread I found referring to a similar problem, but I don't think it mentions how they are supposed to hold in place. Are they just meant to jam fit? or do they push in, twist and lock? When I push mine into place they just fall straight back out. On the other tail lamp, they are really tight and look like they wouldn't come out even if I needed them to. Any help appeaciated.....

Push in, twist to lock. If the plastic is worn, they may not stay in.

I have this same problem with one of mine. I tried adding just a tiny bit of crazy glue...didn't work. I'm going to try to shim it some how...maybe with a piece of foil or foil tape to make sure or still grounds in the housing.

Happens all the time, almost every time I drive behind a FG Firebird one of the brake/tail lights is out. You could try buying some metal bulb sockets such as the ford ones. they seem to be a little larger diameter and stay in better. I still have mine knocked out when stuff in the truck gets thrown about while cornering and accelerating.

Thanks for the helpful feedback sounds like mine isn't the only one to cause problems.



I wonder if there's more than type? Mine doesn't look like you can twist it to lock. The socket has a single location tab which fits into a notch in the tail lamp housing. *** see pics *** Once inserted it doesn't twist. The other plastic tabs don't do much either. Maybe they've just been bent in over the years. Or maybe the two metal grounding tabs should hold it....

I fixed that problem almost 15 years ago....bought Ford metal sockets , hard wired and installed instead of these plastic ones (which shorink)...never fell out again...actually hard to pull out and re install, but better than falling out when driving

posted this years ago...

What model Ford or what part number have you guys used for this?

don't recall....maybe just bring in the Firebird socket to Pepboys or such, get a matching size...just remember them being metal...I hard wired ea one also with ground...

That's because they don't push in and twist! Be careful about what you read on the internet!

They push in; the key on the socket aligns with the slot in the housing, but you already know that. The ground tabs are also spring locks.


Based on what I see in the picture, a good starting point would be: start bending the entire tang outward.

You also may have to re-bow the outer part. Use two pair of needle nose pliers, one pair to stabilize/hold the straight, inner tang, and use the other pair of pliers to re-bow the outer curve spring. Yes, you have to spend some time dinking with them.

Order the correct ones from Ames. Also note that the nubs on each side of the bulb are different depths so the bulb only goes into the socket one way

Thanks for all the advice on this. I've got a pretty good idea what to do now. I'll have a go at repair and failing that it's a new set of sockets!