Rear Light Housing

[81SCRosewood]

My right rear light housing has gone dead. Fuses are good and no problems can be seen on a visual check. I am ready to pull if from the chassis, but the female side of the plug that is mounted into the engine area is not releasing easily. Do you use a long flat headed screw driver to fold the rubber grommet side through the hole to get it released?

Any suggestions will be appreciated.

Thanks!

[bivenator]

I had a similar problem with the light housing. I jerked around with it for 2 days and finally did a search on PP and found John Walker suggesting to drill the screw out. It worked. The short was caused by a wire that had come loose after the mounting board broke free from the housing. A little JB weld and the problem was solved.
Do a search "tail light housing" or something similar and you should find relevent info.
Best of luck

[moneymanager]

The male female plug at the engine wall can be a problem. Usually though in my experience the hard part is pushing the two sections back together...you should be able to just pull the two sections apart with a hand under the fender on one end and another inside the engine compartment. Have never needed a screwdriver. As bivenator says, shorts in these housings can usually be repaired with an hour's effort...saving quite a bit of money. I recently inherited a car with shorts in three out of the four taillights...cost to repair, under $1.

[81SCRosewood]

Thanks for your replies. I have separated the male and female sides of the connection. I am having trouble getting the female connection out of the engine area wall so I may take the whole light housing to the bench to work on.

Thanks again, Richard