Nancy Howell

Look for your headlight at Rockauto.com. The most expensive bulb for your vehicle is $38 at Rockauto.

Are those halogen? Phone # for RockAuto?

I was just going to say that. The $138.00 quoted earlier is for the headlamp assembly (the clear plastic and mounting bracket)


There are two types of headlamps used on that era of GM truck. sealed beam (glass lens, more square) and composite (plastic lens, long and skinny)
For composite lights,there should be two rods that are six sided like the head of a bolt sticking up (vertically) through the radiator core support (metal the grille, headlights and radiator attaches to). Find a socket to fit the rods, remove and pull out the headlight assembly, twist the bulb about a half turn to release it from the assembly and replace. It is indeed like the pic bradk put up. The pic is of a GMC but the procedure is the same for chevy.

The sealed beam is like most other sealed beam replacements. There is a metal ring around the lamp that is held in place by four screws, probebly torx head, remove them and the ring. The light will come out.

Might I suggest using a Napa,Carquest, or an independent auto parts store. The kids that work at O"reilly and Autozone rarely can help someone that does not know exactly what they are looking for. I have a fleet of trucks, and am very mechanically inclined and try to avoid these places as much as possible. The Napa"s and Carquest"s generally have noligible people who are willing to help. At least that is my experience in my part of Texas. By the way, Texas is a whole lot bigger than Illinois, or any of those other "fly over states." I would not live anywhere else!! <p
>P.S. if you don"t think you have either one of these type of lamps or are unsure, post a pick and let me look at it.

nancy, the bulbs are halogen. here are the gm numbers
for the high beams part number 9441732, list price 18.77 each
for the low beams, gm part number 1999366, list price 19.33 each.

I have the long, narrow headlights (from what glennster says, those are the composite with halogen bulbs). Don't need the whole assembly. Glad to know its not going to cost me $131 to replace the bulb.

I grew up helping my dad work on things and James works on the tractors and farm equipment. With all the info posted, James and I should be able to handle this.

rockauto.com

Internet acessible only, I believe.

Woohoo! That's more like it. I had planned to change all of them while we had it apart until I thought it would cost $131 each side, now I'll go ahead and do that. I'm a firm believer in preventive maintenance.

Thanks to everyone for the help. That's why James and I enjoy this forum!

This is what you need.
$10 to $40 depending on quality/type you want at any local parts store

It still might be a good idea to change them both. My experience has been that when one goes the other will soon.

make sure you dont touch the bulb the oil on your fingers will make it prematurely burn out.

(quoted from post at 06:25:52 04/09/09) make sure you dont touch the bulb the oil on your fingers will make it prematurely burn out.

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BUT [b:74790d71df]IF[/b:74790d71df] you do - wipe it down with some rubbing alcohol to get the oil off. :wink: