Light Socket

[Fudog]

I have a ceiling fan with one light in the center. The light socket is a porcelain type and needs replaced as the light flickers and I can hear a little arcing sound. I shut the power off and made sure all of the connections were tight,made sure the socket itself was tight as it was loose,also pulled the piece in the socket where the tip of the bulb touches for a good contact.Put the bulb back in and still a little flicker,removed the bulb and upon closer inspection I could see where there had been a little arcing.The ceiling fan is fine I just need to know where I can buy the porcelain type socket to replace it. I took the bulb out until I can install a new socket.Your suggestions will be appreciated on where to find this.THANKS!

 

[Mikey]

Any good hardware store or electrical supply house will carry such a socket, unless it's really weird, in which case you may have to do a little engineering on the replacement to fit the fan. Here's one I found by Googling {Porcelain light socket}:

http://electrical.hardwarestore.com...orcelain-socket-626690.aspx?CAWELAID=42516123

You could also try cleaning off the oxidation from the old socket contact. Sometimes a hard pencil eraser is good enough, but fine emery cloth will work.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Frenchie]

The most common cause of that, is that the tab in the bottom of the socket has lost its "springyness" - it's sitting flat in the bottom of the socket, leaving a gap between the bottom of the bulb & the contact.

Before replacing the whole socket, try pulling up on the tab a bit - needle-nose pliers generally do the trick, sometimes getting a flat-head screwdriver in under the tab to pry it up a bit.

90% of the time, that'll do it.

OBVIOUSLY, turn off the power before you do this (unless you enjoy fireworks!)

 

[Lakee911]

He already tried that...

 

[Frenchie]

Oh, woops - you're right, I missed it the first time around.