Gauge Lights In The Dash?? UPDATE with PICS

[mudslinger99]

I was kinda kidding about the 906's They will ment your dash. Give me a second.....i8 will try to find you a Part # for a high Lumen/Low watt LED.

The typical LED puts out 1/10 the heat of a comparable filiment bulb as long as the input power remains the same.

Well I'm glad you said something because I was going to pick them up tomorrow and put them in and see how they worked

 

[readymix]

I have a spare gauge cluster in the garage. If you really want to i will give it to you if it breaks/melts down. It would be worth it just to have the information archived on the BBS.

 

[mudslinger99]

I have a spare gauge cluster in the garage. If you really want to i will give it to you if it breaks/melts down. It would be worth it just to have the information archived on the BBS.

My gauges are so hard to see at night I might just be willing to try it

 

[readymix]

I see mine great with the 168's and a slightly tweaked pot' dimmer

 

[mudslinger99]

I see mine great with the 168's and a slightly tweaked pot' dimmer

How did you tweak the dimmer to make the lights brighter ?

I just went out side and tried to take a pic of my gauges but they don't even put out enough light for my camera to pick them up..

 

[readymix]

Pretty simple mods.

1. Replace the ground with a heavier cable and make it short.
Longer grounds can cause/allow eddy current to build. Especially since it is under the dash where all the electric gauges and stereo speakers. Weather or not it is significant or even matters i will leave for you to decide. (way outside the scope here)

2. Rewire the input side so that you use a relay to control input power to the pot. This bypasses the factory fuze panel allowing hte max voltage/current onto the windings.

3. Clean the windings and wiper. I use a pencil eraser or crocus cloth.

Look at the way your gauge lights are wired along that foil run. Now when you turn on the lights some are brighter than others partly because of foil run. You can rearange the power flow if you feel comfortable doing so. It could give you a marginal increase in light. If you were to do this the bulbs would not get power from the foil run anymore so you could also re-drill new holes for the sockets, putting them where you want them.

 

[Ned Kelly]

What about using gloss white paint instead of chrome paint (which actually comes out as a silver)? Would that provide enough reflective power to make the dash cluster look brighter?

 

[Muddytazz]

I've done both the gloss white and the silver painting, and I like the brightness of the white paint better

What about using gloss white paint instead of chrome paint (which actually comes out as a silver)? Would that provide enough reflective power to make the dash cluster look brighter?

 

[dyeager535]

Pretty simple mods.
If you were to do this the bulbs would not get power from the foil run anymore so you could also re-drill new holes for the sockets, putting them where you want them.

Gotta be careful about this. If you look closely at the cluster housing socket holes, you will notice small bumps for the sockets to "seat" on, which is what gives them the tension to stay in place.

Before I replaced my cluster, the "bumps" in my cluster housing were worn for the high beam indicator bulb, and it was pretty spotty in operation. Bending the metal tabs in the socket out for more tension doesn't substitute for those bumps very well.

 

[Ned Kelly]

Thanks MuddyTazz, I'll do mine in gloss white. Maybe I'll spring for some LED bulbs also. Then it will never need dash service again!

 

[dyeager535]

I'd like to see one of these clusters that has LED's installed before shelling out the money for a bunch of them.

According to at least one LED sales page I saw, it was mentioned that even the "wide angle" LED's don't disperse light like incandescents, which may lead to even worse lighting.

For bulbs that are used with filters (turn, 4wd, brake, choke, seatbelt, highbeam) I would think the LED's to be ideal though, at least the wide angle ones.