VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1933-1936 1933 brake light bulb 87

Everything I've seen here & in the parts books indicate the brake light bulb to be a 87. I ordered 87s from the parts house & they're large globe like an 1157. Lens won't go on. What am I missing? The bucket is like others I have so it's not modified. Did the 87 used to be small globed? I found 81s in the brake light spot of other buckets. Thank you, Joe

A #87 bulb is larger than a #63 and smaller than a 1157.
It is 2" long and 1" wide.

Joe I checked and my taillight bulbs are 1129.

Gene
Wagner must be making them different. You could put it next to an 1156 & can't tell them apart. It can't be much bigger than the tail light bulb.

I'll look at the 1129 & maybe find a GE dealer. Maybe they're different than Wagner
Thank, Joe

The bulb glass was also to big on my 1936. It caused the bulb brass retainer to push in on the contacts. With a bit of jiggling over the road; the tail light would loose contact with the socket and/or break the bulb glass. This caused a failure.
I solved this problem by stacking three small washers (spacers) on the bolts between the bucket and lens. This will not be noticeable from the outside due to the metal ring that goes around the lens. Just enough clearance...you may have to add or subtract washers (spacers).

In my former life pre retirement old bulb questions often came up. The best source for any type of bulb information we found is donsbulbs.com. If you have a bulb number just enter it and all the specs and manufacturers of bulbs with that number as well as alternate manufacturers numbers will come up. A GE number 63 for dash tail lamps and parking lamps is a 3 Candlepower bulb. The next one up with the same dimensions is an 81 which is 6 candlepower and that is what I use for the stop lamp. Seems plenty bright at night. I paint the insides of the tail lamps with the brightest chrome paint I can find for best reflectivity.

Cheers

A No. 63 has a life expectancy of 1000 hours while that is cut in half to 500 hours with an 81.

I'll take a look at that. Thank you, Joe

Oh, I should mention one other thing related to tail light lenses. The company that made them produced them for a number of years later. (They also produced for Ford and others). I found an article about this on the internet which mentioned that the later ones were very dark so that the light did not shine through very well. I checked the several I had and sure enough some of them are too dark to be safe. Stick with old originals if you will be driving at night.

Tom