Dash lights

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GSXcite

GSXcite

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Kansas City, Mo.
My dash lights are dim on my 66 barracuda. Looks like some of the bulbs are out. Do you access the bulbs from the front by removing the bezel?
 
moparmat2000 said:
The sheetmetal can cut the **** out of you. Be careful or wear gloves.
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Man, when I was 18 and 135lbs skinny. I ripped the heck out of my skinny mitts replacing the emergency brake indicator bulb under the dash of my 69 cuda 340 because a NJ inspection employee flunk my car for inspection due to it! Then and for sure now I could never accomplish that with gloves on.
 
I used to live in that Godforsaken state years ago. Brought my 69 charger R/T 440 4 speed to the state inspection nazis and I had a Hurst T handle shift knob on it. Idiot flunked me for no shift pattern on it. I took it to local reinspect place. The guy gave me a post it note and a pen. Said draw your shift pattern. So I did. He sticks the post it note on my chargers dash and says looks like you have a shift pattern to me. Scrapes the failed sticker off, and slaps in a good one says I am good to go. I stuck the post it note in my ashtray and drove off.
 
moparmat2000 said:
I used to live in that Godforsaken state years ago. Brought my 69 charger R/T 440 4 speed to the state inspection nazis and I had a Hurst T handle shift knob on it. Idiot flunked me for no shift pattern on it. I took it to local reinspect place. The guy gave me a post it note and a pen. Said draw your shift pattern. So I did. He sticks the post it note on my chargers dash and says looks like you have a shift pattern to me. Scrapes the failed sticker off, and slaps in a good one says I am good to go. I stuck the post it note in my ashtray and drove off.
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There are/ were lots of stick shift vehicles never came with a "shift pattern" fer gawd sake. What do they do?
 
I'm at the point that it's less painful in the long run to take the front seat right out before attempting any work under the dash :(
 
Do yourself a favor and just unscrew the cluster. Yeah, you'll have to lower the steering column to lean it away from the dash. It makes getting to all bulbs much easier. Just make sure to disconnect the the battery. I just did this on mine to convert to LED buls recently.
 
This link has more info than you need to replace bulbs. 1966 Barracuda Instrument Panel Removal and Disassembly Photos
I didn't read it all. I dont know if he warned how easily the contact pins in circuit boards will bend, loosen and lose contact, or come completely out of the board. you can't be too careful.
The plastic bulb sockets have 2 tiny tangs holding them in place. They get brittle with age, those tangs break off. You can buy cheap sockets at ebay (5/8 is the size you need). OEM quality sockets will cost nearly same as the bulbs. 8 bulbs and sockets for my 67 panel totaled about 40 dollars.
 
moparmat2000 said:
I used to live in that Godforsaken state years ago. Brought my 69 charger R/T 440 4 speed to the state inspection nazis and I had a Hurst T handle shift knob on it. Idiot flunked me for no shift pattern on it. I took it to local reinspect place. The guy gave me a post it note and a pen. Said draw your shift pattern. So I did. He sticks the post it note on my chargers dash and says looks like you have a shift pattern to me. Scrapes the failed sticker off, and slaps in a good one says I am good to go. I stuck the post it note in my ashtray and drove off.
Click to expand...
They hated me and my vehicles because they could.
 
moparmat2000 said:
I used to live in that Godforsaken state years ago. Brought my 69 charger R/T 440 4 speed to the state inspection nazis and I had a Hurst T handle shift knob on it. Idiot flunked me for no shift pattern on it. I took it to local reinspect place. The guy gave me a post it note and a pen. Said draw your shift pattern. So I did. He sticks the post it note on my chargers dash and says looks like you have a shift pattern to me. Scrapes the failed sticker off, and slaps in a good one says I am good to go. I stuck the post it note in my ashtray and drove off.
Click to expand...
New "Germany" inspection stations were proof if you give someone a uniform that even remotely resembles the police they became authoritarian dicks. Add a whistle and radio you better watch out!
 
RedFish said:
This link has more info than you need to replace bulbs. 1966 Barracuda Instrument Panel Removal and Disassembly Photos
I didn't read it all. I dont know if he warned how easily the contact pins in circuit boards will bend, loosen and lose contact, or come completely out of the board. you can't be too careful.
The plastic bulb sockets have 2 tiny tangs holding them in place. They get brittle with age, those tangs break off. You can buy cheap sockets at ebay (5/8 is the size you need). OEM quality sockets will cost nearly same as the bulbs. 8 bulbs and sockets for my 67 panel totaled about 40 dollars.
Click to expand...
Thank you sir, that really helps. So If I understand correctly, the bulbs can be replaced by partially removing the instrument panel per photo number one? Anyone know what bulbs are required? Looks like #194 to me. Thanks for the help!
 
I think OEM is/was #158. #194 is close enough. Typically only 4 of the bulbs are illumination. When one goes out a portion of the display will be dark, one half/side of the speedometer for example. Other faults cause consistent dim ( they never were very bright to begin with ). Dimmer rheostat in the headlight switch is the positive source. It can be the fault. You may notice that the round terminals on board pins are oval shaped. They may not contact the pin very well. Some are mated so well that they pull the male pin out of the board while the next contacts at 2 small lines.
The screws that attach the circuit board to the housing are part of the chassis ground path. Cleaning circuit board connections should include all those spots. The screws that attach the assembly to the dash are also part of the ground path. Adding a actual ground wire somewhere may not help but couldn't hurt. For my 67 b'cuda panel I added a ground wire with ring terminal and toothed washer at the lower screw of center pod where my performance indicator/vacuum gauge is. About 4 inches away is male female spade terminals so the added wire will unplug like most other wires. My ground wire ends at a screw with toothed washer added behind the left kick panel.
If you decide you will install LEDs, you will need this ground wire connected so you can power up the panel while it hangs out of the dash and rotate those bulbs 180 degrees as needed to get their polarity correct.
 
Dusterdenovo said:
I'm at the point that it's less painful in the long run to take the front seat right out before attempting any work under the dash :(
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I had to replace a windshield washer linkage rod bushing and in hindsight I should have removed the front seat. I clearly didn’t learn much from that and when installing a front speaker in the dash, it would have made it easier taking the front seat out then too. Only reason I can think of why I didn’t do it was removing the front bench turns it into a two person job on both ends of the project.
 
RedFish said:
I think OEM is/was #158. #194 is close enough. Typically only 4 of the bulbs are illumination. When one goes out a portion of the display will be dark, one half/side of the speedometer for example. Other faults cause consistent dim ( they never were very bright to begin with ). Dimmer rheostat in the headlight switch is the positive source. It can be the fault. You may notice that the round terminals on board pins are oval shaped. They may not contact the pin very well. Some are mated so well that they pull the male pin out of the board while the next contacts at 2 small lines.
The screws that attach the circuit board to the housing are part of the chassis ground path. Cleaning circuit board connections should include all those spots. The screws that attach the assembly to the dash are also part of the ground path. Adding a actual ground wire somewhere may not help but couldn't hurt. For my 67 b'cuda panel I added a ground wire with ring terminal and toothed washer at the lower screw of center pod where my performance indicator/vacuum gauge is. About 4 inches away is male female spade terminals so the added wire will unplug like most other wires. My ground wire ends at a screw with toothed washer added behind the left kick panel.
If you decide you will install LEDs, you will need this ground wire connected so you can power up the panel while it hangs out of the dash and rotate those bulbs 180 degrees as needed to get their polarity correct.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the reply. Wish I would have thought to do this job when I had the steering column out when I rebuilt it and the coupler. It's raining, cold and windy today in Kansas City, so it may be the perfect time to work in the garage and tackle this job. The led MOD looks great, but my car is a 33K mile original, and I want to keep it as stock as I can. Thanks again!
 
H22A4 said:
I had to replace a windshield washer linkage rod bushing and in hindsight I should have removed the front seat. I clearly didn’t learn much from that and when installing a front speaker in the dash, it would have made it easier taking the front seat out then too. Only reason I can think of why I didn’t do it was removing the front bench turns it into a two person job on both ends of the project.
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Sometimes the seat mounting hardware is so rusted that the studs snap off. Thus another repair needed. All of these service procedures are in factory service manuals. None of them state "remove front seat".

GSXcite said:
Thanks for the reply. Wish I would have thought to do this job when I had the steering column out when I rebuilt it and the coupler. It's raining, cold and windy today in Kansas City, so it may be the perfect time to work in the garage and tackle this job. The led MOD looks great, but my car is a 33K mile original, and I want to keep it as stock as I can. Thanks again!
Click to expand...
There isn't a major mod required to replace the 4 incandescent bulbs for illumination with LEDs. The correct LED bulb fits the same original sockets. They will be brighter than OEM and live many years longer. Good luck with it.
 
RedFish said:
Sometimes the seat mounting hardware is so rusted that the studs snap off. Thus another repair needed. All of these service procedures are in factory service manuals. None of them state "remove front seat".


There isn't a major mod required to replace the 4 incandescent bulbs for illumination with LEDs. The correct LED bulb fits the same original sockets. They will be brighter than OEM and live many years longer. Good luck with it.
Click to expand...
I saw a post where the owner put led strips around the outside of the instrument panel. Thought that is what you were talking about. Didn't know they made led bulbs that would replace the originals. Any idea where to get them?
 
GSXcite said:
I saw a post where the owner put led strips around the outside of the instrument panel. Thought that is what you were talking about. Didn't know they made led bulbs that would replace the originals. Any idea where to get them?
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Any auto supply has the replacement LED for the stock 194 bulbs.
Heck, they even carry different colors.
On my cluster I used LED strip lighting for the back lighting by lining the entire inside of the cluster instead of individual bulbs and changed all my gauges to white faces With bright orange/red needles .
Then used LED bulbs for the turn and high beam indicators.
No problem seeing the gauges at night now.
And despite what some say the LED’s are dimable to a point.
 
I wonder if the warm white led along with the blue covers on the gage bucket will produce that classic chrysler blue/green color
 
Not exactly but will be close. Warm white is simply a yellow lens to mimic the incandescent lights color.
 
moparmat2000 said:
I wonder if the warm white led along with the blue covers on the gage bucket will produce that classic chrysler blue/green color
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I can tell you that the “sunlight white” LED’s makes the OE signal indicators blue.
I painted the inside of the cluster housing white to get rid of the blue hue and used the sunlight LED strip for backlighting.
Nice bright white gauge lighting that makes the orange needles really stand out.
 
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