Dash light bulbs - LED replacement

[Amtracker]

bump. I'm still curious to see what they look like!

 

[mr.travo]

Anyone???

 

[bushhawg73]

I have been having problems seeing my instrument panel forever. I located this post while searching and took the advice from PANAMA and decided to disasemble my cluster, clean, polish and paint. WOW what a difference. Now I can see the spedo and fuel gauge great. All of my lights work as they should now. I would rate this as a must do. I had no idea it would make such a difference. I used Krylon bright white fusion paint and replaced all of the bulbs. THANKS PANAMA for the great idea.

 

[top_prop]

I swapped in LEDs to the 4x4 and oil lights, along with the water in fuel and wait light... but the rest are on dimmers and LED's don't like dimmers... or like other posters have stated the GEN lights must remain incadecent inorder for the alternator to come on line....

I might try the clean, polish and paint tact next...

 

[natemccabe]

I've seen a pic on SS some where with the red led lights in the dash, I've replaced only the three that light up the speedo, fuel gauge and gear indicator with red led's looks awesome, I'll take a few pics of 'em later and post it up. The bulbs them selves were not too expensive, I actually found some where local here in Fairbanks's that sells em, think they were $6-7 for a two pack.

 

[jdeoliveira74]

oznium.com great place and great products nice guys

 

[SimonG]

thanks for this info I need to get on this

 

[pgwaldner]

They are not LED, but I replace the dash lights in ours with red bulbs, including the one in the heater control. The trick to getting them bright enough to read is taking the cluster apart and cleaning it then painting the inside with "chrome" paint any where the light hits. The heater panel has a blue strip painted on the end of the clear panel to make it appear blue at night. You must sand off the blue and repaint this chrome also then put in a red bulb. Dont forget to paint all around the bulb area chrome as the black plastic is non reflective. Now they are bright enough to read and are dimmable. Of course you can make it light up any color you want by using different colored bulbs. We got ours at Autozone. Hope that helps.

 

[tequilaiam]

For what its worth:

I took my entire panel apart for a good cleaning. Dust was on everything, even the sealed areas behind the Gen1&2 and 4x4 lights. None of the bulbs were out though I thought they all were. Truck may have been in Iraq at some point...thats about the only place I can see that talcum powder like crap getting in every thing.

Anway, I tried the LED little replacements from autozone since I didn't want to ever take all that stuff apart again. I say don't waste your time, at least on the speedo/fuel gauge. I painted the backing with gloss-white krylon and its still barely visible....not much better than when it was covered in dust. A blue LED is great for the high-beam indicator though and reds would be good for the other idiot lights. But since those are rarely on, they probably didn't burn out on you either

That said, the stuff I picked up in the "carolla patrolla" section of the big store is probably garbage by chinese standards. LEDs can get way brighter than these things were. One could probably find some good 12V red or whatever LEDs and solder them to the base of your burned out bulbs. Or run a little bit of wire from a DIY socket adapter and have some mini LEDs project onto the face of the gauge. If using a 12V high-power LED the dimmer should give you some control as well.

I'll see if I can find anything higher power online and take some pics. It may be the kind of thing where a group buy from digikey makes it economical. Eventually I need to get in there to replace the whole gauge face anyway and I think I spotted one in a junk yard last week.

 

[mr.travo]

PGwaldner- How long ago did you put the red bulbs in? I am all in as long as the "red pant" doesn't start cracking off and exposing white light. I don't need red/white/and blue dash lights LOL!

 

[msiegelusmc]

I'm new to the group and this is my first post. Before I get fed to the dogs, let me say, I have been reading this site for 5 1/2 hours straight and I have looked as hard as I could before I'd ask a question thats already been answered.

Where can I find the covers/lenses for the "idiot lights" on the dash cluster? There are multiple threads on the bulbs and one thread mentioned that the lenses were hard to find, but has anybody had any luck finding them?

Also, being new to the group, I honestly dont know, when someone posts on a feed that I have asked a question, do I get some kind of notification that there was a post or do I just check back periodically

 

[msiegelusmc]

as I were, I found a site that has them for relatively cheap.
http://saturnsurplus.com/lights/lights.htm

 

[lolercaust]

OK time for a resurrection.....From the best of my memory all the instrument lights are good old 194's. My question is if any one knows a place that has the light plugs for the the voltmeter, heater control and courtesy light that take 194 bulbs. Its entirely to hot to sit out side and pull every thing apart just to find out no one in my area has these parts, i prefer online shopping any ways. Im not to worried about the idiot lights they are nice clean and bright but i do really like the red leds. As well as that system would allow me to use just two types of bulbs in the interior. Kinda makes it simple, just the way i like it. I mean come on we all bought our CUCV's because they are simple and straight forward.

 

[Warthog]

The parts manual has all the bulbs listed.

Your memory is slipping. All the cluster bulbs are 168s. Only the GEN2 and speedo bulbs are 194s. Do not use LEDs for the GEN lights.

 

[richingalveston]

red led dash

www.superbrightleds.com



I

 

[richingalveston]

no dimmer with LED's

 

[fuzzytoaster]

For ease of reference for future searches, what is the total number of each bulb model needed to go full LED (with the exception of GEN lights)?

 

[srodocker]

I just bought wagner 168 standard bulbs just to get some light in but I may but some LEDS in the future.

 

[Reynolds1]

Go to e-bay search that number 168 with LED in the search box as well. You can get them super cheap compared to retail stores. I have bought three different kinds from ebay, all of them Chinese made and am yet to have a problem. I believe they have a version available for every plug size and design out there, you just have to dig a little.