At 05:56 AM 3/10/2011, J Stewart wrote:
>I had to replace this &%$#@ little bulb on the very first Vanagon I
>bought years ago, until then I never knew Virginia would fail you on
>state safety inspection if it didn't work.

I think that's a reasonable thing to require to have working...

>  I was told it is a "wheat germ bulb",

It isn't, worse luck - although you could probably make do with one
in a pinch, it would be a nuisance physically and probably pretty
dim.  Grain-of-wheat and grain-of-rice bulbs are widely used in model
train setups, internal illumination in car radios and similar.  Radio
Shack has 12v grain of wheat bulbs for a buck each in twos:
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103780 .  Just
the thing for your car radio that no longer lights up - if you're
brave enough to go in there and find the little beasties.  I have
friends who set off into that jungle in 1982 and haven't been heard from since.

I have a sneaky suspicion that the VW lamp is custom-made.  I could
be wrong though - there are about a gazillion miniature lamps each of
which was initially custom-made for some application.  For this one
the application is to look like the butt end of an LED, so it's a
truncated T-1 3/4* with heavyish leads.  I've just looked through
about five hundred T-1 3/4 subminiature incandescent lamps and found
none with short flat tops and very few with wire leads.  The vast
bulk are midget flange or bi-pin base for industrial use, or wedge
base for automotive use.

*I've recently been mixed up and calling "regular" size LEDs T-2 1/2,
which is too large.  The two regular sizes are T-1 3/4 and T-1.

T = tubular
S = spherical (which isn't really) - think stoplight bulb.
G = globe-shaped (which is)
and the number is the diameter in eighths of an inch and fractions thereof.

Yours,
David