Williams Full House (1966) project.

I had a bulb that would only light up if I moved it around a bit, so I tried using Steve Young's socket cleaner stick. Now the socket blows the fuse to the back box lights every time I turn a bulb into the socket.

I've been troubleshooting with a circuit breaker to save money on fuses, but even without a bulb in the socket the breaker lets go and the back box lights go out after a few minutes.

How could I have screwed up?

Thanks for any ideas.

Thank you, I'll check for those things this evening.

I wrote that I'd check the socket tonight, but then I remembered I took pictures to see if I could spot something that I couldn't see with my glasses on.

Do these types of sockets have the small coiled spring?
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I did notice that the left side of the socket is missing the solder joint. Looks like it fell off. I'm guessing that this is why the bulb would only light when I moved it around, but I'm not sure if that can cause a fuse to blow.
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Here's a pic of a functioning socket. I don't see much difference besides the missing solder.
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Great advice. I'll check this out this evening and report back. Appreciate it.

I removed a couple of staples and turned on the game.

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After a few minutes the fuse breaker blew. If I removed one wire from the socket does that eliminate it from the circuit? Or do I have to completely remove the socket to keep it from causing a short?

The frustrating part is that I did not have this problem until I tried cleaning this socket.
Until then, the backbox lights weren't a problem at all.

There was a fuse. I've only been using the breaker while trying to work out this problem. It didn't occur to me that my breaker is rated at 5 amps and it's slowly blowing because it's in a 10 amp slot.

I think I'll put the correct fuse back in place and see if it blows with the socket in question eliminated from the circuit. If the fuse doesn't blow, then I'm guessing that the socket just needs to be replaced.

Does this sound right?

I dropped in the correct fuse, and it didn't blow when I turned on the machine. Played a game and all was good. The 5 amp breaker wasn't the problem, it was just doing what it was supposed to do. My logic was the culprit. Good call, TinyMe.

I then tried jumping the socket to the wire, and the fuse didn't blow when I powered the Full House up.
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So I installed a bulb, which came to life and didn't flicker during a game. I think I'll take the Dr's advice and try to solder the wire back where it belongs.

Thanks for everyone's input. Helped a lot and I learned a lot, too.

Whoops. Damn autocorrect...
Thanks, again.