Tail Light Brackets

[Barrman]

I know I am driving some of you crazy with my "old truck, new truck" pictures and questions. If you are one of those, you might as well click the "back" button right now.

Below is a picture of my tail light brackets. Both my 1952 and 1953 truck have the same ones. The only difference is the hole for the glad hand cover chain. These brackets were off the 1953. The 1952 didn't have the hole for the chain.

I saw a 1969 the other day and it had bigger brackets that included a hole for the air glad hand to fit through and not be hanging out to get broken off. Did the bigger brackets come out when the lights were switched over to the big buckets or was it another reason gradually phased in?

Don't you just love truck parts history?

Thanks.

 

[gimpyrobb]

I for one think its pretty cool. Not sure why you couldn't clean and paint that glad hand though.

 

[m16ty]

I had a 1953 gasser ( had been converted to multi-fuel). The tail lights were mounted on a bracket that attached to the bed not the frame. It is my understanding that this is the correct mount for a early model gasser. Does your bed have a recessed hole for the trailer plug or is it flush mounted?

 

[Barrman]

Chris, that glad had is beyond clean and paint. I need to replace it so I didn't even waste time on it. I just stuck it back on to keep crud out.

I forgot about the early bed mounted lights. Both of my trucks were Air Force and then were loaned out to a Defense Contractor sometime in the mid '50's. I think from there, they went into private ownership without beds. The one I am working on was wearing a drop side bed when I got it.

 

[saddamsnightmare]

January 27th, 2008.
Dear Mr. Barrman:

Your photo above of the taillight/glad hand mounting caused me to go out and look at "Saddam's Nightmare" mountings, and on a 1971 Kaiser Jeep M35A2, here's the differences:

1. tail light bracket more rectangular, with 45* clipped at top and bottom corners,versus your round corners.
2. Glad hand projects past taillight, with valves mounted like your photos- glad hands painted to match truck (686A Tan).
3. Taillight bracket has punched metal plates on back braised to brackets "Service" on left, "Emergency" on right.
4. gladhand protector's chains attached by "S"link through hole in top of bracket, same area as yours, just top side of bracket.
5.Hole for air pipe in bracket below and inboard of taillights.
6. Gladhand rear locking ear or flange just about even with rear (lense) face of composite light units.

I suspect that most of the Kaiser Jeep M35A2's in this period shared these tendencies, and mine was Multifuel from date of construction. Keep digging, between your truck's and Mr. Doyle's archives, we might actually learn something about the G742
series trucks (I can't wait untill Mr. Doyle's BIG MAGNUM OPUS is published on these trucks!!!).

I remain,
Sincerely,

Kyle F. McGrogan
1963 Mercedes Benz Unimog S404.114 (Swiss)
1971 KAiser Jeep M35A2 Wo/W "Saddam's Nightmare" Vietnam and Desert Storm veteran Deuce.

 

[hole]

My 53 stude (which was converted to multi) has the bigger bracket with the glad hand coming through it. I too am looking forward to Mr Doyles Deuce book, because mine has very few signs she was ever a gasser

 

[Barrman]

If you look at the picture, you can see that 3 of the wires are connected. The 4th wire on the M35A1 harnerss is for the b/o brake light. Something not found in the small bucket tail lights. Look underneath the unplugged 4th wire and you can see my stencil type metal tag that says "service."

I will get a picture of a newer more substantial style mount the next time I am around one.

 

[nattieleather]

Tim.

Pull the bolts for the tail lights and put a internal/external star washer on them fro grounding....You'll thank me later...

You truck should have a black out stop light originally on the passinger side with just a single tail light/brake light on the drivers side, I'm going to make the assumtion that you are running a stop tail light on both sides of the truck. Are these gamma goat type lights or original "cats eye" lights and if they are original aren't you concerned about safety of them being seen?

 

[Barrman]

Joe, I have a bag of the star washers. I just don't know where right now. Once I find that bag, they will get installed.

You are correct about how the 1952 tail lights are supposed to be. taillight, b/o light and service brake light inside a "cat eye" bucket on the left with just a service tail light and a b/o light on the passenger side. The b/o brake light is the little bitty bullet shaped thing hanging about a foot out behind the outter right rear tire.

I wanted blinkers and service brake lights on both sides. So, I have the small bucket cat eye lenses on both rears with the b/o brake light hanging off on its own like it was stock. Basically I have the same exact rear light hardware as the stock M715.

I really like the small bucket lights. I have been running them on the M715 for a few years now with no close calls. I had the big bucket composite style lights on it before but didn't like the big lense look. Heck, I even put a set of small buckets on my car trailer so the truck and trailer will match.

 

[nattieleather]

Ok...that's cool. Yep use a black out marker light as the basice b/o stop light on the passinger side ala mid 1960s....

I myself having been in an accident with the old style lights refuse to run any MV with out the larger lights.....but that's cause I'm shall I say gun shy...

 

[saddamsnightmare]

January 29th, 2008.

Dear Mr. Barrman:

One correction to my Post above, item No.3, there are two roundhead rivets through the "Service" and "Emergency" tag plates, and the 45* clip runs in about 1-1/4" inch both vertically and horizontally. Mine has two composites (metal) from two different makers, and the right hand one has an LED
B.O. Stop light inserted into it, the left still uses the #623 6 C.P. bulb (I hope that the LED works). I drove a 1961 M422A1 USMC Mighty Mite back in the late 1970's early 1980's, with only the one "Cat's Eye Standard- Brake/tail/ B.O. markerl on left side, and only B.O. marker/stop on right, and the cat's eye (like a Model" A") stop light caused me some near misses and a lot of cussing out.
No doubt, as my truck served from 1971 untill 2006 in Army service, it had some modifications, BUT- it still has the original stop light switch mounted on the Air/Hydraulic master valve unit, so they didn't pull that on the MWO rebuild back in 1989/90 before her service in Desert Storm. The stories of these trucks might never be fully known, but they are a form of industrial or military transportation engineering archaeology. How Mr. Doyle was able to get his standard catalog of military vehicles togather in 1 lifetime, I'll never know, but the doorstop G742 book's the one I'm waiting for (I'll buy the "Lite" version when it comes out- but the other'll be the one to have), so let's all keep feeding Mr. Doyle the details of our oddball's so his book will be more complete (standard G742 Vs. Field Mod.s!!).
Thanks again, and keep digging, your truck has been an education for me.

With Great Regards,
Sincerely,

Kyle F. McGrogan

1963 Mercedes Benz Unimog S404.114 (Swiss)
1971 Kaiser Jeep M35A2 Wo/W "Saddam's Nightmare" Vietnam and Desert Storm Veteran Deuce.