dashboard lights upgrade
 

For all those people who think there dashboard illumination is a little boring read on:

I pulled out the three instruments from my dash and had to replace a duff bulb, I paused for a second and thought "I'm going to use LEDs instead of bulbs".

I used the old bulb holders (after removing the actaual bulb) then I soldered the LED carefully onto the contacts (not forgetting the series resistor and making sure the leads were spaced and didn't touch). I used a seperate red and a green LED for the tachometer, a green and blue for the speedo and two blue LEDs for the petrol and temp gauge.

After patiently waiting all day for darkness to fall, I rushed out to the car and switched on....WOW! No more dim dash lights... a beautiful coloured display . I am now going to do the same for the centre console.

NOTE: If you are going to do this, please seek specialist advice if you don't know what you are doing. I can offer some technical/electronic advice.

Good luck!

I don't know about multi-colored bulbs in the same gauge cluster, would like to see a pic of how yours turned out.

LED replacements are becoming more common as the reflective coating wears off the light tunnels and people have to do something to see the gauges. Perry951 on Rennlist was selling a LED upgrade for awhile but stopped for now.

There is a guy in England that has posted on Rennlist and is just starting to sell an upgrade. It is a bit expensive, though.

I bought direct replacement LEDs (type 194 I think) from superbrightleds.com. No sodering necessary, they go right in the standard connectors. Turned out great in my early dash with white faces. I'll post pics as soon as I can find my camera...

By the way, the early dash does NOT have the light tunnels and reflective coatings right? Man, the first time I cracked open my dash to do the tinfoil on the reflectors I was so confused.

I am going to be doing the gauge light replacement on my 85.5 944 soon. I am interested in the LEDs. Any idea which ones would I use?

Re: dashboard lights upgrade
 

Sounds like Christmas...

to those of you that have done this, do the LEDs dim nicely with the rest of the dash lights? that question is the only thing keeping me from doing this conversion.

nate

PS - I now have TWO running cars! just dropped the Stude off for an alignment today. I can't remember the last time this happened. two driveable cars! OH STIMPY! I guess that means that now I can go beat on one of them and try to break something? Anyone ever drifted in a Studebaker? <G>

Max29a- Use extreme brightness LEDs but you can always experiment, they cost pennies.
Toolboy62- They don't dim as much as the bulbs would, but as above, you can always experiment with different LEDs or raise the value of the series resistor. There is another possibility of playing around with the dimmer control.
I will see If I can take a picture of it.
Good luck

Dashboard Lights Upgrade Pictures
 

I have posted a pic for you to look athttp://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1091180325.jpg

That's actually kinda cool :)

Im not crazy about the uhm...fruity colors though..

If you could make the guages all the same color..like Yellow..or Red..or Orange..or White..not pink, lime green..and hot blue..:D

The pink is actually red, and the green is darker. The photo image isn't great.

Cheers
Phil

I'm impressed, care to offer up some technical info?

What resisters do you need?
Approximate completion time?
Can you dim them?
Difficulty of soldering sockets?

The Red Tach. is truely an eyecatcher

LEDs need a resistor in line with one of the leads, this is required to limit the current to a safe level to stop the LED burning out. The actual value depends on the maximum current for the LED. Blue LEDs normally operate at about 4V yet other colours require 2.4V. It all depends on the colour. (check the specs on the LEDs when you buy them).
As a rough guide: Use a 470 Ohm resistor for Blue, and a higher value: 680 ohm for other colours?.
Completion time depends on how easy your instruments are to get out and your soldering skills. I estimate 1-2 hours?
You can't really dim them as much as the bulbs but if someone can tell me about the dimmer control then it might be possible.
The soldering of the LEDs in their respective bulb holders is a little fiddly. You need a fine tipped soldering iron. and some sleeving to stop the leads shorting. DON'T FORGET: LED's are polarised (+ and -).
If you are not sure how they work, get a 12V battery, a selection of different colour LEDs and some resistors and have a play.
Any problems, please contact me.
Good luck

hi misty, congrats on a new way of addressing the dim lights issue. not my cup of tea, but looks good anyway. btw, where abouts in essex? i used to live in stifford-clays, near to grays, in essex, when i worked for ford, at dagenham.
bob.

Again, feel the need to chime in. I got direct replacement LED bulbs in a variety of colors that don't need resistors (they run at 12v) from www.superbrightleds.com. No, I'm not affiliated, I just don't see the need to spend all that time sodering and rewiring. I've done my clock and oil pressure and they look great. No, they do not dim as much as the standard bulbs.

That being said, congrats on getting it all to work misty, and once you get those colors ironed out I'm sure it'll look even better. I'm a big fan of cool colors in the dash.

Fruity doesn't begin to explain it...

I think it looks pretty neat! Do they actually dim, or are they more on/off when you use the slider?

Bob, I live in Braintree, Essex, which is near Chelmsford. Very close to Dagenham.
Now that I look at it, I could have always bought the 12V LEDs, but as my job involves soldering, I thought I would give it a go? I would be interested in seeing some pics if any other people have done this?
Have fun.
Misty

ernestedward- can you confirm the direct plug in replacement part number I went to the web site and did not see 194? Also let me know if you want to meet somwhere and have a beer (would love to see the LED's in person) I siberian and couple of the Norhtern Virginia guys would come too

Yes, please provide the part number, I couldn't find it on the site either.

Thanks,

GHEN

if you guys decide to do another NoVA gtg let me know, I am not too far away and I haven't met too many 944 people

nate

If I wanted to replace all the lights in my cluster how many would I need?

(87 model N/A)

I am interested in this upgrade also being the lighting in my 84 is so poor..If you click on the website Edward listed,there is a section that allows you to look up available direct fit LED's for each make and model..I looked up 84 944 and they listed all the exterior bulbs,and also the instrument cluster..The number they list is 2721 but they dont give specifics on colors or quanity..If anyone finds anymore out,please post..

why is it I have NO problem finding this page?

http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-bin/store/commerce.cgi?product=CAR

Ummm breathe OK? I appreciate the help. It is a little confusing in that there is no "type 74" section, they just go by stock number.

Thanks again,

GHEN

Ok,so Im ordering the Red which would be # T13R6(type196)..So,as asked already,,does anyone know how many dash lights an early dash requires??

I think....(I'm not sure)....but I think 12. I saw a pic of the backside of a cluster and that's the best count I could get. I'd order 15 just in case.

Great, I'm confused again. I would think you need #7443
What am I missing?

I went to the Sylvania site and it shows this for 944 instrument lights:

Instrument-general
Part number = 2721

The cross reference shows this:

BULB CROSS REFERENCE
TYPE REPLACES
74 17, 18, 37, 70, 73, 79, 85, 86, 2721

So does anyone know if I need the 74 series bulb, or the T13?


GHEN







GHEN

You need any bulb compatible with a GE 194. That site lists all the varients that the bulbs are compatible with...many are compatible with one another. Just cross reference.

Or, better yet, tell me what color you want...

Kind of you, I want the brightest red they have.

Thanks,

GHEN

$3 a pop... WLED-6 LED bulb

My upgrade used 11 LEDs altogether: two in each of the Main Instruments. one in each of the smaller centre console instuments. and two for the heater controls. Extreme brightness are (in my opinion) the best to use. But it all depends on the users taste. If you can power up an LED out of the car, take one of your dash instuments out completely (careful!) and hide it under your bed covers, shine the LED into the hole at the back and see for yourselves.
Regards
Misty

I don't believe anyone has said yet ...

Do the LED's dim or just an On/Off type of thing ???

SmileWavy SmileWavy

Thanks

LEDs should dim.

Sorry to stir up an old thread but has anyone had problems ordering bulbs from this place?I placed an order for 15 LED's,gave my cc # ect..At the end it stated I would recieve a confirmation e-mail verifying my order.I e-mailed them asking for a response confirming my order and nothing..No e-mail,bulbs,or calls from them..Ofcourse it was deducted from my card right away..It seems this place has no addy,phone#,or any way of contacting them.I was curious if anyone has had a problem with them..Thanks..

Re: Dashboard Lights Upgrade Pictures
 

I was wondering what that gauge on the left was, then I realized that that is a right hand drive early 944..
LOL, had me stumped there for a minute..
That looks OK for a chics car. Maybe a different color color would be more my taste, or just white like the original.

I'm seriously considering replacing my bulbs with blacklight LEDs. I recently got a new small LED flashlight (funny how those things keep finding ways to run away from home) and it's one of those that you have to push the button a few times to cycle through the rest of the functions to turn it off. One of the functions is a blacklight and I noticed the dash gauges just kind of jumped out at me when the blacklight h it it, making the gauges very easy to read, even improving their visibility in daylight. Ive since experimented with it in various driving conditions and was impressed every time. The nice thing about using the blacklight is that you completely do away with any potential glare issues, particularly while driving at night when standard dash lights in general can cause eye irritation and fatigue.
Does anyone know if blacklight LEDs can be purchased from the vendor discussed here? Otherwise, I'll just have to tear apart my new flashlight and MacGyver them into place.

I know they sell small black light lights that maybe can used/installed in a "hidden" area so it'll eliminate you having to do any mods aside from running power/ground. I'll look at my local car shop, I remember seeing some there.

I was disappointed with the brightness of my gauges as well, and wanted to give my interior a different look, so I bought one of those white face -peel and stick- gauge cover kits on Ebay.

I removed each original gauge face and carefully positioned the white faced cover so the indicator needle still pointed at the correct number. I think from start to finish, I had only maybe 2 hours in the project, and I love the results, much easier to see at night, and modernizes the interior look. ( I didn't replace any bulbs, but I cleaned all of them before re-mounting them).