The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay 6 volt tail light bulb upgrade question

Good afternoon,

The 51 Stovebolt I just bought, has the factory repop tail lights on it, with the small bulbs. The tail lights are bright but the brake lights are barely visible. I am not sure that the previous owner didn't put 12 volt bulbs in but I can't confirm that because the numbers on the brake light bulbs have about worn off.

What is the number for the 6 volt double contact brake light bulb?

TIA

Kevin

1154 is the taillight bulb number for 6v dual filiment

Thanks, I thought it was!

Not sure if it will fit the repop light since those bulbs are small.

Im sure it will fit.

Do the lights in the truck now have dual filament?

Otto, I pulled the right side brake lamp builb and it's a 97, which is a 12 volt bulb, which I kinda expected. So I need to find the same size bulb but in 6 volt and I will have bright brake lights. It's not safe the way it is now!

Use an 81 for the tail light bulb. It's the same size as the OEM 63 but twice the candlepower. Use an 1129 for the brake light. You may have to bend the bulb socket bracket a tad to get it to clear the lens. Paint the inside of your housing gloss white to reflect more light. Use a plastic lens, it lets more light through than glass. I've done this mod on my 38 and my lights are as bright as my modern 12v truck. Yell if you have any questions. The last image below shows my 6v 38 with this mod on the left & my 12v modern pickup on the right.

Thank you Tiny!!

Appreciate it!

I see. You have two bulbs in there. I also have aftermarket lights but they have single 6v dual filament bulbs.

I agree with Tiny on painting the inside of your taillights white. Most people think they should be silver/chrome but white is far superior. I even do that on 12v systems like the '66 Mustang. It's really amazing how much brighter the taillights appear when the inside is white.

I did that on the Packard which has very small taillights - about half the width of the one in Tiny's picture. I need all the light I can get on those things.

Otto, as crazy as a lot of people drive these days, I want to make sure I am visible when I drive my old truck!

Kevin

I'm with you there, Kevin. Atlanta is absolutely lawless on the roads.

I'm amazed that I've been driving the Cadillac for 20 years as a regular car without being hit. At least its as fast as modern cars and I can cruise in the left lane at 70-80.

The truck is a different story. Right lane at 50-55 and these jokers run right up on you. I drove it to a friends muffler shop today on the interstate but decided to take the scenic route home on 35mph roads. Much less stressful.

Yeah, Hotlanta traffic sucks! Man, it amazes me what people do. A lot of work and time went into restoring this 51 Chevy truck but apparently people doing the work had no idea that you can't put 12V bulbs in a 6V system. On one of my trips out to the shop this evening to check out the tail light bulbs, I got to thinking.... the park light bulbs are dim too so I removed the 2 screws on the lens frame on one of the park lights and sure enough, there was an amber 1157 bulb in the socket.

I pulled it out and there is a double contact pigtail in the socket, and one of the contacts was just wallowing around in the socket. Upon further investigation, I noticed a small red wire behind the grille that has been cut (this is on the drivers side). When looking at this truck to buy it, I saw that wire on the passenger side sticking out from behind the grille and wasn't sure what it was but now I know!

Guess I will be figuring out exactly what the body shop did and correct their mistake.

Sounds like someone tried adding turn signals, but messed it up and gave up.

1154 bulbs share the same base as an 1157. The only difference is voltage.

That's kinda what I thought too.