[78 monte]

OK I was under my car till 6am last night putting in a tranny.And in that time I blew 11 bulbs in 2 lights.Some would blow when I just touched the light,which would lead me to smack it on the ground in a repeated fashion then throw it out from under the car.
We have a case of light bulbs just for this reason.Does anyone else have this prob???What causes this??Those "tough bulbs" don't help.We've had many differant drop lights and differant brands/types of bulbs and they all do that.

[FASTFORD]

a bad batch of bulbs. went thru this for over a year. needed a bulb in a hurry,got 1 at local hardware store,lasted almost a year.got more bulbs at wal-mart,blowin bulbs again.went back,got my money,went to hardware store.good bulbs,same maker.different code on bulb package,last longer. thats what my problem was,i think. still have 3 of 6 purchased at hardware store. the tuff bulb still dies after a 3 foot fall! btw,why a bulb question on the engine forum? <img src="confused.gif" border="0">

[ July 07, 2002: Message edited by: FASTFORD ]</p>

[4 Jaw Chuck]

Fluorescent bulb trouble lamps don't have this problem and you won't burn yourself either.

[78 monte]

FASTFORD I figured no one usualy reads the electrical forum so I put it here.
Maybe I'll try one of those flouresnt screw in bulbs.The ones w/ the four tubes on a light bulb base.

[axle bastard]

i'm with 4 jaw! i have a flourescent job i got from the cornwell guy, not cheap, but better light, and will take a whoopin!!!

[johnnymopar]

i work at an electrical wholesaler and sell lamps all the time. the problem with regular bulbs is the filaments aren't designed to take abuse, obviously. You can get rough-service lamps which have a heavier filament but they only have an average life of about 500-1000 hrs, compared to standard lamp life of 6000 hours. Another option is a traffic signal lamp. They're usually 69W or 116W and are good for vibration and also have a life of about 8,000 hours. They probably cost somewhere around $6-$8/ea.

anyway, the flourescents that you mentioned are known as compact flourescents and you can probably get up to about 26W or so to fit in a regular trouble light. You can buy them one-piece or you can get an adapter to go from an incandescent socket to a compact flourescent base, some are known as PL lamps. You could probably buy a PL13 for about $4.00. These flourescent lamps are good too because flourescents usually have an average life of 20,000 hours.

JB