1954 Manhattan taillights.

[54manhattan13]

I am attempting to restore a '54 Manhattan and am having trouble figuring out how the taillights are to be wired.
The tail lights were already removed when I purchased the car. Each side ( left and right ) have only one receptacle. The wires for the other two are present but the receptacles are missing.
The two receptacles accept 1158 bulbs.
When placed in the rear facing taillight the bulb lights for the normal taillight function, but when the brake is applied the light dims rather than getting brighter.
I am confused. I thought that the normal taillight bulb is the 1154?
Is there a difference between the rear facing taillight and the upper lighted portion of the taillight?
Any help with this would be greatly appreciated

[joefrazer]

The rear facing socket should accept a two filament bulb. A visual check of the socket should tell which bulb is to be used. The 1158 bulb has two pins that are across from one another. An 1154 bulb uses staggered pins - one is set slightly higher than the other.

The bulb for the top socket is a 1034 I believe.

[rialto]

The tail light dimming when you step on the brake indicates a bad connection probably a bad ground. The socket might not fit tightly enough in the tail light or the housing might not be grounded good to the body. Maybe the socket or bulb is corroded and doesn't make a good connection to each other.  1034 is an obsolete 12 V double filament bulb that was replaced by 1157.

[rialto]

The upper and lower bulbs in the tail light on each side both do the same thing .Both are stop/turn signal and tail light. Both are double filament.

[mbflemingkf]

When these cars left the factory, they had 1154 in the front (park lights) and 1158 in the rear both top and bottom.  How do I know that?  Its called out in the Owners Manual!   

I agree with rialto on his last 2 posts.  Dimming bulbs indicates a poor ground and the rear lights/directionals work the same for the tail lights and the upper ornament light extensions.

Newly manufactured 1154's and 1158's should be available by the box on ebay.  Don't buy "NOS" bulbs as they are old and the bulb will twist out of the base due to old/dried glue.

Remember the system is 6 volts...all connections need to be clean and grounds well made.   

Mike

[54manhattan13]

Thanks for the help guys, you have cleared up my understanding of the taillights functioning.
When replacing the bulb sockets does it matter which wire goes to which side of the bulb?

[Bobm90]

I own a 54 Manhattan also, mine is 6v Positive ground, I will try to look at it today and give you all the taillight info I can from my car. Also I recommend a site called CircleKF - http://circlekf.com/login.php  , a great guy runs it and when you become vetted you can get KFOC members only info. also , he has a 54 Manhattan Owners Manual (and lots of other neat stuff) on there that has bulb info, it can be copied or read online.

[Bobm90]

MBF is correct 1158 is shown in the owners manual for the rear and up facing bulbs in the tail lights, my car has TS 64 (duel contact, single element) bulbs facing up, thanks for the question I now know what belongs in there.

[Fid]

What happens sometimes is the tail light bodies no longer make a good connection to the body due to slush, rain etc. being slopped up there and corroding the screws. Remove the mounting screws/bolts, clean the surfaces where they make contact and that usually does it. I even went as far as running a ground wire from the tail light bodies down to the frame on my HJ. They're nice and bright now.

[rialto]

Both 1154 and 1158 bulbs have two filaments , one filament is brighter than the other. The bright filament is for stop/turn signal. The dimmer one is tail light. If you can find the correct socket for the 1158 bulb then you can just wire it in. The even base 1154 bulb can be removed and rotated 90 degrees if the wrong filament lights up. If you use a modern 1157 type socket then the two wires have to be in the right place.

[54manhattan13]

I truly appreciate all of the advise.
This forum has been very helpful even when I am not seeking help.
Abundant knowledge here .