I need some guidance with installing the rubber cord seal from 914Rubber on the tail lights.

The lenses and reflector housings are replacements from AA. The OEMs are too far gone with no reflector chrome and corrosion in the sockets.

It seems the contour of the lens isn't a perfect match to reflector housing (even on the old OEM housing). There is a gap mid way at the top (see first photo). The gap sort of disappears if there is no rubber cord when the lens and housing nest together. Adding the rubber cord makes it worse as the lens does not seat as deeply. This also raises the question... Where does the rubber cord go? Does it go in the housing or does it go in the lens? (last two photos)

I really want to stay away from using RTV silicone if I ever need to change a bulb.


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The rubber seal goes on the lens side, but don’t over squeeze.

It took about three days in the hot sun for mine to tighten up just twist the knobs a little each day

Doesn't look like the lens has the correct curvature.
Aftermarket?

I just replaced the seals on my car. I put the rubber rope seal in the plastic channel in the lens. I also had the same problem with a gap in the same place. I just put a piece of black electrical tape over the gap. My lenses were after market ones and did not conform to the shape of the OEM taillight housings.

Yes aftermarket.

The problem with the curvature mismatch is that it the gap is at the farthest point away from the three screws holding down the lens. Very little force pulling them in at that location.

I almost want to put the lens in the oven to warm up the plastic to see if that helps but that could be risky. I don't want to screw it up and need to buy another.

New Mexico does have hot sun. Where I am, it is 42 deg F outside and raining... had snow earlier in the week...

Road trip?

My original lens had the cord stuck in the lens groove. Canada weather, maybe use a heat lamp bulb, keep it a safe distance away and add a clamp, tighten it a little everyday at that point and leave it for a while. It can be 120+ here in the summer and heat does work.

Don't mess with the lenses, send them back to Auto Atlanta ASAP. They should stand by the quality of their products!

Even more so if you bought the whole package lens and housing. Totally unacceptable in my book.

AA claims this in their "add" here on the World: "perfect fit tail lights and tail light bodies are here, we are happy to finally get them"


http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=339636

heat gun?

BTDT...all the new aftermarket lenses that I have purchased have the "dog leg" curve. 914Rubber & SMC lenses are the same way, even if you purchase them with their new housings. They most likely get them from the same supplier.

I did the same thing to mine, placed electrical tape on it. We shouldn't have to do this to a new part, nor should we have to leave the seal out, but they just don't make them like they used to. At least the tape keeps dirt and moisture out...just another reason not to wash your 914 with a hose.

As a potential buyer for a set of these lenses, I think comments from the source would be beneficial to our community since they are advertised as "perfect fit" (per link previously shared).

@dr914@autoatlanta.com

Yep; been using a half-width strip of black electrical tape for several years. No one, even me, notices it and works simply. Then I replace it every 3-4 years to keep it “minty” fresh.

wait for summer and then do the front yard mechanic trick?
sounds like it works.

you could try a hair dryer......but.
i'd try a radiant heater out in garage and sit it nearby to duplicate f y m method.

the nice thing about his trick is the sun gets to work on the plastic for hours. long term application of gentle pressure allows plastic to relieve stresses as it conforms to the shape. a radiant heater over a long enough period might do same.

ps

i don't want to sound like a goose here.
(its 30 years since i put mine in or took them out).

but .... there is no danger you have put the lhs one on the rhs?
ie upside down. ???

Definitely not. The shape of lens that wraps around to the side of the car would not allow that. The top of the side lens tapers inwards more than the bottom and will not insert.
Blimey! ya did make me go and try that!

sorry to spook you!
i was just out there staring at mine wondering if it was possible.

Nope. That didn't work very well.

Took the aftermarket USA lens that came with the car (same gap) and set it up with a heat lamp. The light color rubber cord in the lens is from AA. I didn't want to use the 914Rubber seal cord because it was black and would absorb heat too fast. (I plan to use the 914Rubber neoprene cord as it is a bit smaller in diameter and is of a softer durometer).

Set up the heat lamp to slowly heat the lens while continually monitoring it for temperature by touch. Heated the inside as that side would have to stretch to flatten. When it got to a temperature that I was still just able to hold, probably around 50-55 C (120-130 F), I took it to the car. If anything, the gap looked worse, but then again, the cord needed to be compressed. Pushing at the gap in the center while putting on the plastic nuts I heard and felt a pop. Looked at the lens and it had split in two...

Good thing I didn't try this on my Euro lens.

Unless there is a better idea somewhere, looks like black electrical tape is the answer!


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@mikey914

Mark,

Do you have any expert tips on how to best insert the cord into the lens?

Push it straight in? Allow it to stretch so that it inserts easier? Use a lubricant like glycerin? Flush to surface? Pushed in as deep as it can go to minimize the gap?

Since the lens has a complex shape for the gasket to seal (plus that out of contour gap) and only three screws this thing needs a delicate touch to at least try to get a uniform sealing surface all around. I know now brute force on this is not an answer.

@vitamin914

ouch

i pulled out the orig hella us units i have had for a long time.
not kinked as per aftermarket.

these things must be hard to make -maybe deform due to manufacturing processes and stress after being released from casting moulds.


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These are an extruded seal that we currently buy and resell. You are correct, after looking at this closer the rubber is a little harder to make work easily. I think we may need to make a better version ourselves. The shape and material defiantly can be improved.

I’ll follow up with a new thread after I have a chance to get a better solution.
Mark

Yay!

I had exactly the same problem and it took about a year of trying to match used warped housings with various used and aged lenses to go a different direction, made worse by the fact that not all of the original lenses were the same shade of red. After purchasing and having to return replacement housings from SMC, I finally found a great match using the reproduction housings from AA with a set of NOS Hella lenses (which came with the correct off-white ivory colored rubber seal) purchased here from our classifieds.

The housings I have from AA are great too. They match the body extremely well - with nice bright chrome reflectors. It is the reproduction lens that are the culprit with that wow in the top center (can't see the bottom for fit, drainage if a gap?). If you don't push the replacement seal to the bottom of the lens it is near impossible for the three screws to pull in the plastic lens and push the rubber cord in. Pushing the seal all the way in leaves the seal too far away in the top wow to do anything useful. Guessing how far to push/not to push in the seal at the top is a hopeless task (not to mention that it still won't seal very much it the rubber moves deeper over time). I would love to try NOS Hella Euro lenses, if you can find (and afford) them.

I've had excellent luck with those guys. Can't complain.

After reading this thread, I decided to have another go at making my taillight lenses seal without a gap. I tried gently stretching the new seals from 914Rubber. That made the rubber cord seal smaller in diameter and it fit better into the slot in the lens.

The lenses I have are the Hella 3-color style (amber, red & clear). Stretching the rubber cord seal did the trick and the lenses now fit without the pronounced gap between the lens and taillight housing. No more need to cover the gap with a small piece of black electrical tape, as I had done before. Before the idea dawned on me to stretch the rubber cord seal, I looked online at Grainger Supply and ordered some soft silicon cord, but that won’t arrive for a month. The soft silicon cord has a durometer measure of 40, while the rubber cord and regular silicon cord has a durometer measure of 70. When I receive the soft silicon cord, I will report back on how it works.

By the way, my Hella lenses have both been broken at the seams where the different colors of plastic meet and been repaired with gap filling crazy glue in the past, so they are not exactly factory “straight.”

I did much the same thing - I stretched the cord so that it would seat deeper in the groove, then pushed it in so that it bottomed out with a popsicle stick. That let the lens seat deeper into the housing allowing that wow in the lens to "disappear". I also put the ends of the cord (where they meet together) at the bottom of the lens. If for some reason the cord decides to shrink back and creates a gap, being at the bottom it will just act as a drain hole rather than let water in if it was at the top.

Here is my concern. The purpose of the cord is to seal against the housing to keep water out. For it to seal, the cord has to conform and touch the housing. With the way I did this I think, where I have the wow in my lens, there is no seal against the housing so water will still get in through that spot. I did get rid of the gap...

To seal properly, the cord has to move in the groove and compress to allow matching to the housing. This won't happen if the cord is too stiff, or too tight in the groove. I even thought about dusting the cord with talc or using glycerin to allow it to move easier in the groove. The way it is now, the plastic lens and 3 screws are not strong enough to give uniform pressure on the cord all the way around.

Mark @mikey914 (914Rubber) has a really good idea about making the cord from an even softer than 40 durometer rubber. I hope he can find the time to try it.

Problem is that the softer material expands significantly when extruded under pressure. I need to calculate where it should be to get the dimension correct, then go smaller and work out temp variables to try to nail it by making small modifications. This material has more variables and I’ve got material inbound to start the process. Tool steel is getting expensive.

And never very tight either. Just snug them up a little and over time, things flatten out.