Bob
Member
Worked on my taillights a bit. I have the sockets to replace yet.
Restoring my RT taillights
- Thread starter Bob
- Start date
CDN72SE
Well-Known Member
Good job, keep posting as you restore them, would like to see.
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x2. I have mine to rebuild as well, so look forward to seeing yours in progress.
Bob
Member
When converting from standard taillights to RT/Rallye here are a couple things I learned.
The RT/Rallye light housings are pot metal and ground through the mounting bolts. So whats that mean?
You will not have a ground wire off the harness by the left rear side marker. This is the main ground for the taillights. You will not need this. Just remove the grounding bolt, remove the taillight grounding wire and put the bolt back in. The side marker is plastic so it needs this ground.
The right rear marker light is a 2 wire system requiring a two wire connection off the harness. The RT/Rallye harness only has one wire to the marker light. If you don't have another side marker socket you will need to cut off the one on your standard lights. One wire will connect to the harness and the other will need to be grounded. I drilled a very small hole in the support bracket, crimped on a round connector and grounded the light bulb.
The four wires, black, brown, purple and green. Purple is reverse, black is running lights and brown and green are left and right brake lights. When troubleshooting the lights out of the car make sure the taillight housing is grounded. Otherwise you will get nothing out of them.
When mounting the lights in the bumper never use screw longer than factory. Otherwise be prepared to spend another $299.00 for lens. The bolt will go through the housing and right into the lens and bust it.
Here is where I saved about 30-40 bucks:
The lens gasket is still in pretty good shape and is still pliable. I carefully removed the gaskets, cleaned the groove, squeezed in some weather strip adhesive in the clean groove and flipped the gasket over. That's about it. Don't by new if you don't have to.
Light sockets are not that hard to change if you have bad sockets.
I used the Dorman sockets, $2.99:
shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/dorman-conduct-tite-electrical-sockets-2-wire-double-contact-3-4-inch-85803/5012112-P?searchTerm=dorman+part+%2385803#
Make sure you clean the metal housing before inserting the new socket.
This is where the socket gets its ground.
When you insert the new light socket hold it in there really tight with one hand and use a flat tip screwdriver to bend the tabs over nice and flat. Once you test the lights and the sockets are working, run a bead of silicone around the new socket where it goes through the housing to give it a water tight seal.
It's a good idea to buy a tube of electrical grease and do the light bulbs before putting them in so they don't freeze/rust up.
Well, that's about all I did.
The RT/Rallye light housings are pot metal and ground through the mounting bolts. So whats that mean?
You will not have a ground wire off the harness by the left rear side marker. This is the main ground for the taillights. You will not need this. Just remove the grounding bolt, remove the taillight grounding wire and put the bolt back in. The side marker is plastic so it needs this ground.
The right rear marker light is a 2 wire system requiring a two wire connection off the harness. The RT/Rallye harness only has one wire to the marker light. If you don't have another side marker socket you will need to cut off the one on your standard lights. One wire will connect to the harness and the other will need to be grounded. I drilled a very small hole in the support bracket, crimped on a round connector and grounded the light bulb.
The four wires, black, brown, purple and green. Purple is reverse, black is running lights and brown and green are left and right brake lights. When troubleshooting the lights out of the car make sure the taillight housing is grounded. Otherwise you will get nothing out of them.
When mounting the lights in the bumper never use screw longer than factory. Otherwise be prepared to spend another $299.00 for lens. The bolt will go through the housing and right into the lens and bust it.
Here is where I saved about 30-40 bucks:
The lens gasket is still in pretty good shape and is still pliable. I carefully removed the gaskets, cleaned the groove, squeezed in some weather strip adhesive in the clean groove and flipped the gasket over. That's about it. Don't by new if you don't have to.
Light sockets are not that hard to change if you have bad sockets.
I used the Dorman sockets, $2.99:
shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/dorman-conduct-tite-electrical-sockets-2-wire-double-contact-3-4-inch-85803/5012112-P?searchTerm=dorman+part+%2385803#
Make sure you clean the metal housing before inserting the new socket.
This is where the socket gets its ground.
When you insert the new light socket hold it in there really tight with one hand and use a flat tip screwdriver to bend the tabs over nice and flat. Once you test the lights and the sockets are working, run a bead of silicone around the new socket where it goes through the housing to give it a water tight seal.
It's a good idea to buy a tube of electrical grease and do the light bulbs before putting them in so they don't freeze/rust up.
Well, that's about all I did.
Last edited:
old_skool
Well-Known Member
Nice build and welcome aboard the best site around.....especially for 3rd gen Charger's...I know, there's others here, just a little biased:headbang:
Bob
Member
Completed
What determines the color of the bezels being black or silver? My white R/T has silver bezels.
Bob
Member
I'm not sure. I seen a set that I liked and just painted them like that.
Last edited:
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