In Reply to: Rear lights on 8N posted by David Hurlbut on June 24, 2012 at 07:03:58:
Hi David-
Well, from what I see, you do have an original TAURUS tailight used in the FORD N-SERIES tractor lighting kits from '39-'49. Your tailight is mounted upside down. Why? There is a clear lense on the top of the housing that was the license plate illumination window. The tailight also came with a bracket for mounting a license plate. However, many states did not require tractors to be licensed, usually only if they were to be driven on major highways. All lighting kits were optional equipment -No N-Series tractor ever came from the factory with lights, maybe except some produced for industrial use, maybe. Thus many farmers chose to purchase the kits and install them themselves and would turn the tailight upside down not needing a license plate light. It looks like yours is missing the clear lens. In mid '49 Ford introduced the DUOLAMP-B tailight made at the Ford Flat Rock, MI lamp factory and this now replaced the TAURUS tailight in the lighting kits. Your implement lamp, or worklight, is hard to tell from just the one picture if it is an original. early ones were made by te CM HALL Lamp Co. of Detroit, MI and had a logo in a diamond shape stamped on the housing near the light switch. Is there a switch on the housing? The lamp/bulb isn't original -no yellow bulbs were ever part of the worklight kit. Have you heard of Dennis Carpenter Reproductions? He makes and sells a lot of parts for these old N's and the worklight and DUOLAMP-B tailight are two of them. You can get exact-as-original bulbs from him or Just8Ns -both vendors listed here in our LINKS forum. Unfortunately, the TAURUS tailight is not reproduced by him yet and therefore parts, especially the lenses are not available. Hope this helps clarify your lighting issues...
Tim Daley(MI)
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