Improve those dash lights

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yeah you got it pretty much , the single chips are going in the directly forward shining sockets and I oredered 5 and 10 chip units for the guage sockets , the 5 and 10 chip ones I ordered don't look flat like the one pictured above tho , the 5 chip unit is like a cube with a chip on 5 of the 6 sides and the 10 is the same with 2 chips on each of five side simulating a 360 degree bulb .I'll post pics later . 2.30us each for 10 od the singles and 8 of the fivers with free shipping what do I really have to lose .
ps there are dozens of different types and configurations out the for the 194 alone its pretty confusing for sure .
 
For turn signal LEDS ( front and rear ) you may need an electronic flasher for them to work. Seems that LEDs do not draw enough current to enable it. Not sure about this so check it out.
Yote
 
we're only talking about the indicators in the dash itself not the 1157 bulbs.Here's some pics of what has arrived so far , I'm going to have to pull the dash and do the swap that way since my little helper is at summer camp for the next couple of weeks .I shot them with the flash on so they are glowing lol
20170804_145122.jpg
 
Well just finished doing my contortionist impersonation , they are all in and working except 1 that I have to find a replacement socket for so I left the "Brake" light empty no biggie , I'll try to get pics after dark but found my speedo is rocking along a horizontal axis in its housing , you can grab the cable and move it up and down and the face of the guage rocks with it , I'm wondering if it is blocking the light on the big number side since that bulb is down around 4 o'clock or so and the cable is holding it at an angle with the bottom of the face forward , going to have to figure a way to rock it so the top is forward and see if that lets more light in where I need it .
FFS just never ends eh !
 
Another note on the bulbs themselves , I found the little wire paths on the bulbs are a little narrower than the brass clamps in some of the sockets so I bent the loose end of the little wire out towards the edge of the base making them wider ensuring good conduction . I'll take some pics of this issue when I find another replacement socket .
 
cannucky said:
Another note on the bulbs themselves , I found the little wire paths on the bulbs are a little narrower than the brass clamps in some of the sockets so I bent the loose end of the little wire out towards the edge of the base making them wider ensuring good conduction . I'll take some pics of this issue when I find another replacement socket .
Click to expand...
you're not the first to discover the LED undersized at socket contacts. "Intermittent" / "Come and go with bumps in the road" reported here before.
About the speedometer, I don't know what panel you're working on but all speedometer heads are held in the metal housing with 2 screws, one each side of the cable port. Those screws go through a metal sleeve thingy that is in the middle of a rubber isolator, sort of like a front end bushing on much smaller scale. You might have a loose or missing screw, failed isolator, or maybe someone left out the rubber isolator pad between the instrument and housing and/or stripped some threads in tightening. So yeah there are 3 pieces of rubber along with 2 screws involved in typical speedometer head mounting. 4 pieces of rubber where there's a trip clock stem. Good luck with it.
 
it's a 69 Ralleye dash , it doesn't wobble left and right at all it acts like it has an axel through it horizontally , I am not taking this dash all the way out again to play with that I'll deal with it when I find a 150mph speedo to replace it with . I was thankfully able to do the bulbs without disconnecting every wire and pulling it completely and barring any LED failure I can't live with it's not getting effed with again until I have both another socket and a new speedo in hand . On the bright side every LED unit is working and if they continue to work I will have some spares to send some lucky feller that has helped me out in the past , hmmmm I wonder who that should be ?
 
I'm pretty sure I can get them at a different Cambodian Tire store , theres another store over by the base with a large auto dept that will probably have another pair , The store I used to go to closed and reopened at a mall in what was a Target , they closed 2 stores and merged them into this giant 2 story gong show that has almost no stock on hand , tried to buy spark plugs at their grand opening and they had 4 plugs for a small block v8 in stock like really they're for a v8 whos going to only change 4 ? The parts guys all moved to local parts stores and they replaced all the staff from the 2 closed stores with pimple faced teeenagers that are clueless in every department .
 
Additional thought crossed my mind... IF I installed dependable, quality LEDs in my inst' panel that should burn for 100K hours, I would be tempted to reroute the orange wire to hot at switch on so the inst' panel lights up with/when like todays vehicles. We pretty much forfeit the dimmer feature with LEDs anyway, right?
All other illumination could and would stay OEM.
 
RedFish said:
Additional thought crossed my mind... IF I installed dependable, quality LEDs in my inst' panel that should burn for 100K hours, I would be tempted to reroute the orange wire to hot at switch on so the inst' panel lights up with/when like todays vehicles. We pretty much forfeit the dimmer feature with LEDs anyway, right?
All other illumination could and would stay OEM.
Click to expand...
Some LED's are dimmable. Just gotta get the right ones if you want that feature. My dash lights were so dim with incandescent bulbs the LED's made it just right so I don't really need a dimmer
 
I put 194 LED in my 73 and I don't ever find the need to dim the cluster.
Being too bright isn't a problem.
And I drive at night every day...........you know what I mean.
 
I remember when I had to ask, "Why do all vehicles have dimmable inst' panel lighting?" "Reduce glare on eye glasses" was the best answer I got. "Mood setting, dim for romantic" was the daily chuckle of that day.
 
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