here's the goal ~ convert ugly amber dash lights into blue leds on a tight budget

i took a cluster from a parts car and ordered 7 blue leds. the leds are 12v 1.5-b, and twist to fit the cluster perfectly

the led's are longer than the original bulbs so they can't be pushed in far enough to twist-lock. so i:

removed the gauge needles
pulled out the gauges
sanded the amber color off the back of the gauges
grinded the plastic down so the leds can fit
sanded the grinded edges smooth so more light could shine through

and put it all back together.

all the leds shine through fine, but now i'm having trouble getting the gauges to read correctly. i'm thinking when i took the needles off the gauges they unwound or somthing? looks like i have a few hours of trial and error ahead

if anyone has any advice spill the beans, i'm not looking to waste 75 bones on an aftermarket cluster

Pics of the cluster at nite? Where did you get the bulbs?

Check your position of the needles... Maybe run the car to normal temp, fill the tank and place those two back on...

Originally posted by teklein
Pics of the cluster at nite? Where did you get the bulbs? Check your position of the needles... Maybe run the car to normal temp, fill the tank and place those two back on...

http://www.superbrightleds.com/mini-wedge.html
-instrument cluster and gauge backlights
-T1.5-x

gas and temp are fine now

spedo and rpm are running into tape gauge due to tape i used to keep them down (i'll glue it)

spedo gauge is missing needle stopper that was glued in, pretty bummed out by that

i'm going to mess around with the led and see if i can get it to fit into my other cluster without having to shave any plastic inside the cluster itself

probably going to try grinding down the tip of one of the leds then smoothing it out

You're probably going to have to create your own led cluster, AZDave did one once. I'll see if I can find the post he put up

Edit: found it

http://forums.2gnt.com/dcboard.php?az=set_linear_mode&forum=7&page=&topic_id=98122&prev_page=show_topic

wow, i don't think i'm ready for that one lol daaang

when i put the cluster in and started the car, it read 40mph@6000rpm overheating with no gas lol

one big puzzle, i figured car usually idles around 800 or so, so i stuck the rpm on 800

at 4th gear 2k rpm the car goes nearly 40rpm
so i drove up and down the street and stuck that needle too

by then the car was heated up so i stuck the temp needle on mid

the other cluster read a little of a quarter tank of gas, so i redid that needle too

all that's left now is to see it in action at night time, i have a feeling it's going to have dark spots and be very dim (i grinded a lot of that plastic mold away. and the ends that the light shine into are more opaque now