Shedding some light on the subject

Towards the end of last summer, I noticed that the nearside sidelight had stopped working and assumed the bulb had simply blown. I wasn't really too bothered about it, as it really doesn't produce that much light, and I never have them on on their own, I always go straight to headlights (not that they emit much light either!).

As it happened a week or so later I got a phone call from my friend Pete who was out house hunting. It transpired that he was near Just Kampers in Odiham, so he kindly offered to pick some bits up for me. I phoned ahead and made the order for him to pick up. Along with the curtain rails, I thought it was worth getting a new bulb.

The next week, I had some spare time, so I decided changing the bulb would be a good idea. After a bit of wrestling session with the headlight unit, I had it apart and the old side light in my hand. Curiously, the headlight and sidelight mount itself looked somewhat customised, almost as though these weren't really the parts meant to do the job. Anyhow I went to get the new one from my bag of goodies, only to find it was completely different. The new one was tiny, where as the existing one was far bigger. I guessed that I had just ordered the wrong part.

Slightly frustrated, I went to put the unit back together only to notice that the somewhat perished lens to surround seal was coming off. After nearly losing an eye popping off the clips (word of advice, use safety goggles here!) and half an hour's fettling, I couldn't get the seal to stay on. Suffice it to say I had to put the whole thing back together without a seal or a working bulb! Joy!

A few months later, after the Bus had been put into hibernation for the winter I needed to take a trip to Just Kampers myself. This time I picked up a headlight surround to lens seal and asked for a new sidelight bulb. When it was brought out however, sadly it wasn't as expected, it was exactly the same as the one I had got earlier, and was way too small. Stupidly I hadn't brought the old one down, so there was no way of comparing the two. As a result I decided that I would just take the bulb out and pop down Halfords to compare it to all the bulbs they have to try and find a match!

Last week, in the (cramped) comfort of my garage I decided to replace the seal and whip the bulb out for it's little trip to Halfords. After a very fiddly job putting the new seal back on, I came to take out the bulb. Whilst removing it I became intrigued by the way it was mounted and how loose it was as a result of this. Then I spotted a major problem; the contact on back of the bulb was just under a mm away from the contact on the housing! So it was never going to work.

New Seal

Headlight unit removed

Missing seal

Seal in

Gap closed

After a bit of fettling (read as bending metal into place) it was  all ready to go back on. One reconnected battery later and it was working fine. I can't believe that was what the problem, after all that hassle! Still, I do actually need to find out what the bulb is (I do have suspicions that it might be an indicator bulb masquerading as a side light), but at least I won't be fighting a losing battle when I do need to replace it!

Working light back in place

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