Bah. Replaced the light sockets on my 1950s kitchen light due to one constantly failing/blinking out for a while, and the same socket has the same issue. What confuses me is that both sockets are pigtailed together where they meet the circuit and capped with a wirenut. Not sure how one socket stays on but the other doesn't...

@TylerH Did you reuse the same lamp ?

@Criggie it's a ceiling fixture, so in the sense that I reused the metal bracket that fits over the threaded rod attached to the ceiling mount, yes.

but both sockets and their wiring (porcelain with stranded aluminum [looks like aluminum rather than copper] wire) are completely new.

took some pliers and twisted the hot together with the solid black wire coming down from the ceiling and did the same for the neutral, then capped each twist with an appropriate-size wire nut

I'm gonna be heading into the attic this weekend to take a look at the wiring beyond the point it drops through the ceiling.

see if there's some weirdness going on

not sure what I expect to find in the way of explanation there, though. If I don't find anything I'll have to try with some CFLs instead of LEDs

OK - could be flakey wire somewhere - like a solid core that has broken and mostly works.

Yeah, just seems odd that when one of the sockets has the issue (and it's always the same one), the other does not have any issues.

If a solid wire higher up had issues I would expect all sockets wired up to that circuit to show issues

I'd just replace the pigtail wires and wire nut, and see what happens

Anyway if I can't figure it out I'll post a question on main with a diagram and picture so the resident electrical experts can weigh in

(if that were legal here)

you mean pull off the actual stranded wire itself from the socket, and maybe replace with a solid core?

nah stranded is much more resiliant.

I thought the pigtail wire went from the socket to the wire nut ?

I'm not american so your systems are weird to me

@Criggie they do

That's the gist of what I've got

the circuit is powered by a switch on the wall; it's a ceiling light in the kitchen with two bulb sockets

the bulb in the right socket (always the right socket) will turn off or go to like maybe 5% brightness after a few minutes of the light being on. Never the left one. And both bulb sockets are brand new... exact same problem occurred with the old sockets which were so old the plastic/porcelain around the actual metal socket was cracked and falling apart

OK its definitely wiring then. Start replacing things until the problem goes away. That its only one light suggests the problem is from the wirenut/wingnut to the failing lamp

but what doesn't make sense to me still is that if the wingnut is improperly sized, why aren't both sockets affected, since both sockets are connected to the circuit by the same wingnuts, for hot and neutral respectively...

it seems improbable that if there were an issue with one set of stranded wire making good connection with the solid wire, whereas the other was making good connection, that I would somehow re-introduce the same exact issue when replacing the sockets...

Dunno sorry - wire nuts aren't a thing here.

how do you join wires there?

the little stab connectors?

No - full runs are preferred, or screw down terminals.

bunnings.co.nz/…

that's rated to 40A of 250V AC