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[Dean Riley]

I have 24 par 64's that I loaded with ray kits about two years ago. Now I'm trying to take the ray kits out but they are stuck in there pretty good. The ceramic piece on the ray kit that has the prongs coming out is pulling away from the ray kit itself when I try to remove them. It's only two rivets on each side holding this ceramic piece on. Any tips on removing them??
Also, I'm putting new sealed beam 1000 watters back in these cans. Any tips for avoiding this problem in the future?? I realize that the sealed beam bulbs are more robust in this area but is there a lube or grease(lithium maybe) that can be put on the contacts to ease insertion & extraction?

[Brian Ship]

hmm, not sure about the ray light problem, could be the lamp bases were warn or loose in which case with heat and use they could have arched their way into welding to the lamp base.  Assuming of course you are talking about a Ray Light with a EXEP type lamp base on it instead of an older style with wire leads.  Ray lights do tend to fall apart.  Lamp bases also need infrequent replacement.  Could be both are shot.

In any case if going with a ACL/Sealed beam lamp that's now low voltage, it has screw terminals at the base and you won't need the PAR 64 lamp base any more.  If welded as I think you are describing, just cut it away or dissemble the lamp base on the PAR to get better access.  If warn, be cautious about further use of it because it will probably melt to anything else you install it on.

Wait a moment, next to Sealed Beam lamp, you have 1,000 Watt.  Do you mean some other type of say FFN type VNSP but line voltage lamp?  Different things.  In this case, it might be nice I expect if you can extract the ray lights from the lamps.  If possible to disessemble the lamp base - such as the older Leviton style with the screws, great.  Otherwise there is probably not a lot you can do.  A good replacement and better lamp base would be the Sylvania type wit it's aluminum frame and 48" leads.  They hold up a little better and I'm yet to see any melt down internally at the contacts.  They do wear out, but not as fast.

With the ACL lamp, you might want to go with steel/high temperature ring terminals instead of the normal ones.  Should not get that hot but it's nice to cover that anyway.

McMaster Carr #7437k15   Electrical Contact Cleaner w. Lubricant 16oz. Spray is the product I use for a high temperature De Oxidant/protect-ant.  Craig and others are using DeOxit I believe.  

I would tend to avoid normal lubricants, the idea is that your lamp base should have enough tension to lift the lamp at least for a moment or two.  This way there is less chance of the lamp base popping off in transport or arcing.  A lubricant might allow for the lamp base slipping off.



Spell check!!! Thanks

[Dave Bigelow]

Just a wild guess but would the dielectric (sp?) stuff that you use on spark plugs work for that?

(the stuff that usually comes with the new cap & rotor)

[Bob Cap]

You might be able to take the PAR64 ceramic apart. You might still find the ceramic and the Ray fixture pins have welded together. Worth a try.

Or..............just replace the ceramic connector. They only cost a couple of bucks.

Good Luck

Bob Cap

[Dean Riley]

Well here is what I did. I removed the ray kit with the ceramic attached. Just undid the wires. These ceramics must have been real cheapo's. They don't have nuts and bolts holding the halves together. They are reveted. So I purchased new ceramics to go back in. Then I went through all my other cans that have 1000 watters, removed the bulbs, and used a product called anti-sease. This was recomended by another pro off line. Looks like it's going to do the trick.