My wife says the tailights on my car are not working... they will light up when they are wiggled from inside the trunk, so they are getting power... My question is should I get her to replace the pigtails, or the taillight housings? Does one or the other tend to fail more often? I will probably end up replacing both and converting to LEDs eventually anyway, but I want a simple fix that I can talk my wife through over skype so she can safely drive until I come home, which thankfully is not far off!

 

I replaced both housings and still use original pig tails..only rarely does one go out usually when something in the trunk bumps the connector.

Mechanically speaking I would think both are nearly equally prone to failure might as well replace both of them

if you are looking for a simple fix start with the housings... They are very easy to replace.

-Gun

 

They both cost about the same and they could both be bad. I agree with the previous poster (don't forget to look at and/or replace the housing to body seal while you're at it).jlg

 

You could also try spraying some contact cleaner on the connectors.

I vote for converting to the Scott Drake incandescent sequentail tail lights. They look so much better than the LED setups. Here is mine. Sorry for the lousy clip.

There are 2 kits for 65-66. I have the deluxe kit.

http://www.mustangsunlimited.com/ite...asp?T1=STS2+01

http://www.mustangsunlimited.com/ite...asp?T1=STS1+01

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEz3jonxoPg

 

I've installed all new taillight parts. New housing, pigtails, etc. The pigtail connections are still just marginal at best. They practically come loose if the air temp changes too quick. Mine are frequently going out, I just need to wiggle or jiggle the harness to get them to come back on. I'm thinking about making my own, solid connection. P.s. I have the non-sequential LED taillights. I love them. (the sequentials are too flashy for me) -no pun intended.

 

Well, the wife got ahold of a friend whom collects old Stangs (5 so far?) and he had some extra, used but working pigtails and housings, so she gave him a few bucks for them and will put them in tomorrow. When I get home, I'm going to do the LED conversion... I was looking into sequential, but think I'm just going to do the regular LED. If I had Shelby style lights, I think the sequential would look better. Someday maybe I'll get the mustangproject.com Shelby conversion kit, but 500 is a bit more than I want to spend on tailights right now. Thanks.