BillGrissom
Well-Known Member
I bought these 5/8" bulb sockets on ebay for my 1965 Dart. I had dropped one socket in the dash and couldn't find it and in another socket a copper contact fell out when removing the bulb and couldn't find it. Believe me I spent 30 min searching for both (been there?). I couldn't get these new sockets to fit, working with cluster in-dash. Finally got so frustrated I removed the cluster to see the problem. I finally found they have two small plastic "ramps" on what should be a flat base where the contact fingers sit. You can (barely) see one in 2nd photo, below the copper contact. Cut those off with a razor knife and bend the contacts up slightly for better fit and no problem. They do fit tighter, so less likely to shake loose like the OE ones. I'm guessing those ramps are to lock in a hole in other cluster apps.
After removing the cluster, I found the dropped socket in the dash. It had rolled underneath the headlamp switch. Still looking for the copper contact which fell on the floor. I did check my trousers cuffs (catches stuff). I slightly sanded the cluster copper and coated all contacts with silicone grease. I used LED bulbs for both OE sockets and these. The OE sockets fit a BA9 mini-bayonet bulb. These new sockets fit a T10 wedge bulb.
Final photo shows the bulbs installed. Only the holder in far right of photo, above speedometer, has a new bulb socket (rectangular base). I used it there since the new one fits tighter and that location is almost impossible to get fingers on working in-dash. With most LED's, you need to try both clockings to find one which lights. For the OE sockets, clocking the LED bulb in the socket doesn't matter. Instead, the socket must be clocked in the cluster correctly, which the photo shows.
The electronic "voltage limiter" replaces the OE thermal type inside the fuel gage. I opened that gage years ago and slipped heat shrink over the bimetal lever to disable it. The limiter was sold for Mopars and ships with either ring terminals for my 1965 or male spades for later clusters w/ the separate metal-can limiter. On another Mopar, I used a generic adjustable 12 to 5 VDC supply ($10, Amazon). Those are preferable since a plastic case with ears you can secure under a screw. The limiter had come loose, using the foam sticky tape it came with. I had stuck it to the board at left in photo. This time, I removed the OE capacitor (needed?) and stuck it on the right, using E6000 glue and a few drops of superglue, foam below to level the mounting surface, top edge under a screw, and routed the gnd wires over the top to help secure it. If you care to spend more, the limiter from RTE (~$50) has the advantage of outputting a higher voltage for a short time at power-up to move the needles a little faster towards steady-state. I can wait another minute. An adjustable limiter is best since you can use that to perfectly scale either fuel level or coolant temperature gage (not both). There are also zero and range mechanical adjustments on each gage, by bending tabs on the rear (screwdriver slots for experts only). In my 1964 Valiant, I had to also add parallel resistors to the level sender to get "F" correct. I'll check the scaling on this cluster (using test resistors) before re-installing. This limiter outputs 5.14 VDC, a tweak I recall doing.
After removing the cluster, I found the dropped socket in the dash. It had rolled underneath the headlamp switch. Still looking for the copper contact which fell on the floor. I did check my trousers cuffs (catches stuff). I slightly sanded the cluster copper and coated all contacts with silicone grease. I used LED bulbs for both OE sockets and these. The OE sockets fit a BA9 mini-bayonet bulb. These new sockets fit a T10 wedge bulb.
Final photo shows the bulbs installed. Only the holder in far right of photo, above speedometer, has a new bulb socket (rectangular base). I used it there since the new one fits tighter and that location is almost impossible to get fingers on working in-dash. With most LED's, you need to try both clockings to find one which lights. For the OE sockets, clocking the LED bulb in the socket doesn't matter. Instead, the socket must be clocked in the cluster correctly, which the photo shows.
The electronic "voltage limiter" replaces the OE thermal type inside the fuel gage. I opened that gage years ago and slipped heat shrink over the bimetal lever to disable it. The limiter was sold for Mopars and ships with either ring terminals for my 1965 or male spades for later clusters w/ the separate metal-can limiter. On another Mopar, I used a generic adjustable 12 to 5 VDC supply ($10, Amazon). Those are preferable since a plastic case with ears you can secure under a screw. The limiter had come loose, using the foam sticky tape it came with. I had stuck it to the board at left in photo. This time, I removed the OE capacitor (needed?) and stuck it on the right, using E6000 glue and a few drops of superglue, foam below to level the mounting surface, top edge under a screw, and routed the gnd wires over the top to help secure it. If you care to spend more, the limiter from RTE (~$50) has the advantage of outputting a higher voltage for a short time at power-up to move the needles a little faster towards steady-state. I can wait another minute. An adjustable limiter is best since you can use that to perfectly scale either fuel level or coolant temperature gage (not both). There are also zero and range mechanical adjustments on each gage, by bending tabs on the rear (screwdriver slots for experts only). In my 1964 Valiant, I had to also add parallel resistors to the level sender to get "F" correct. I'll check the scaling on this cluster (using test resistors) before re-installing. This limiter outputs 5.14 VDC, a tweak I recall doing.
