Repair the original running lights - 2010

July 2010 - At Marina Cortez Harbor Island, San Diego, CA

These are our original running light that Islander Yachts installed on the boat in 1978.

 When we went sailing the other day we came back to our slip about 9:00PM and it was dark. Our running lights did not work. We used the tri color on top of our mast instead but it is not legal in the USA unless you are sailing I believe.

So this weekend we took apart the two bow lights and the stern light.

The bulb socket all cleaned up😀

What we saw was corded connectors. We cleaned off all the corousion.

The wires were in great shape.

You can see how short the screws are here.

We also replaced the screws in the two bow lights because they old ones are too short.

The lenses are in good shape.

The bulb in the port light was good but dirty on the connector (side and bottom). It also fit a bit sloppy and that was a bad connection. I crimped the socket with a pliers and it fit snug and cleaned it up.

To clean the sockets up I used the trusty Dremel with a sanding attachment.

The fixture is in good shape.

So we cleaned them up and the port worked fine. The starboard needs a new bulb, need to purchase.

We will try for a LED bulb if possible. I have been told that a led will not work because the housing is too small.

The bulbs get hot as the sun and I burned my finger and thumb!

The stern got cleaned up and a new bulb put in (had a new one).

So got two out of three working.

 I hit the port light to get it to work (it would blink) and in doing so it came off the cap rail.
Of course the job took a sacrifice to the sea gods and so I dropped my brand new Philips head screw driver into the drink😦