Question on gauge brightness

[kilodawg]

Posted this the the early 911's registry as well...

Okay last weekend I changed out all the bulbs in the gauges on my new to me '73. I replaced the standard bulbs with equivalent LED's and cleaned each socket and bulb housing the same way in the process.

This evening was the first drive I took after dark. What I noticed was that both the fuel/oil gauges and the speedometer were the brightness I'd expect but the remaining gauges were all equally extremely dim to the point that I had to look carefully to see that the bulbs were illuminating. They all were but something is not correct.

Any ideas??

[rbuswell]

There's a nice tech article here in Pelican Parts and an extensive thread on Rennlist. Some of the guys go back to basics and others do some pretty nifty fabrication. Those would be two good places to start.

[david914]

I'd start by making sure the dim gauges are properly grounded and the bulb holders and their corresponding receptacles are clean and making good contact. It's also quite possible that the new LED lamps aren't up to the task of lighting the gauges in question. The subject of LED replacement lamps has been discussed on Pelican ad nauseum. So far, no one has been able to come up with a significantly improved solution that's DIY friendly.

[scarceller]

A few of us on this board are working on a better solution to getting these gauges brighter. See this post:
What is the best way to increase brightness in gauges?
Also get the document I have started, but not yet finished from my site here:
http://members.cox.net/widebody/
The idea of using LEDs has been tested by me and many others on this board. Bottom line we have not found any LEDs that can do the job because they all send the light in a pinpoint beam (more or less) out the end of the LED and the standard bulbs send 80% or more via side light. I for one have given up on LEDs and have approached this fix by using brighter bulbs.

Also, as already mentioned you should see this article for getting the most light out of your stock bulbs as well:
http://www.pelicanparts.com/techarticles/bob_tindel/brighter_instruments.htm

I have stopped working on the project for a bit but promise to start again on it soon. But enough details are provided in my document already so you will get the idea for the approach.

Hope this helps.