VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1929-1932 1930 Sedan - Headlight Conduit Connector Plug

I’m working on getting my headlights to work more than intermittently. I think I found the problem, the ”˜buttons’ are worn and need to be replaced or repaired. My question is how do the conduit connector plugs come apart to get at the internals of the connector plug ? The plug with three buttons in the plug is on the passenger side, the two button plug is on the drivers side. I have cowl lights so the third hole/wire isn’t used, and my cowl lights work well.

mine originally there were little metal parts encased in the bakelite/plastic insulators with solder on the ends. basically soldered the wires to the metal insets and into a ball for connectivity.

when i did mine, i used my solder iron, was really simple and easy. melted solder and used my solder sucker and bam wires pulled out.

I did a posting on this as well as how i rebuilt them:
Rebuilding Headlamp Assembly on 1929

I went close the original as possible, one of my insulators was broken, so i 3d printed news ones and went from there. have 3d printed these insulators for a few other people as well, so let me know if you need a set. Another option on rebuild is to use brass buttons/contacts (Rhode Island Wiring, XYZ, etc...)

Thanks Jerry. I looked at your rebuild posts and figured it out. I think I’ll try to add a drop of solder and if that doesn’t work then I’ll be turning on the heat in the garage and disassembling the connectors. Great info on the rebuild post, Thank you.

I rewired my '29 to go on a 6 cylinder tour some years ago. It is an un-restored car so instead of sourcing an expensive original type wired wrapped headlight pigtail I had a wiring harness from a hot-rodded late '30 coupe. The small soldered on wiring terminals did not have the second rib that appears to help hold the terminals in the bakelite material like the ones pictured above. It just pushed up and I was able to unsolder the brass terminals like bearsfan did. I cleaned the brass terminals and reused them. Just a small bead of solder on top of the newly soldered terminals did the trick. Check for that style before cutting your bakelite apart.

Art

Thanks Art, I’ll take a look.

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Thanks Jerry. I saw that catalog cutsheet. I'm going to try the drop of solder first...

you are welcome
i did the drop of solder, and using those little brass washers made it 10x easier, since the solder bonds to the brass washer, it almost makes a perfect circle :) plus keeps the solder from going everywhere else

I use copper pop rivets to make wire ends. Just cut the copper and center stud or "nail" to length desired, remove the "nail", slip over the wire and apply a drop of solder. Not as expensive as the brass ends or washers.

Thanks Chipper !

Good idea Jerry. I did the drop of solder on the driver's side plug today and it worked ! I'll do the passenger side tomorrow. Now I have a high beam on the passenger side and a low beam on the driver's side. I think I read something about removing the bulb and turning it 180 degrees and that should fix things ?

that should work since they are simple Ba15d boyonet style bulb. the pins are in parallel (same height) so you can flip it 180 degrees.

I bench test my bulbs and put a + on the high beam contact side. just for my reference.

Thanks again Jerry ! Another good idea. I flipped the bulb and now they’re the same.