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While it's out and all apart, you also have the opportunity to update the look a little if you want and aren't concerned about preserving originality. I did the Jager led wedge bulb upgrade (regular bulbs for warning lights), their CF look panel with the aluminum trim rings, and polished both sides of the plastic lens with a headlight restoration kit.
A-pillars, sun visors, pod, dash, and glovebox by Rob Budd.
Here are a couple pics - first is a before and after of the dash panel (actually 2 different ones but they looked the same initially) and then one installed in the car.
Ya forgot to put a new "unleaded fuel only" sticker on the cover. Shame on you!
In the category of 'FWIW', the California STAR inspection looks for that sticker and the one by the gas door as part of their visual-inspection checklist. They don't cjeck what gas is in the tank, trust you so long as the stickers are in place.
I think that is a B8.3D bulb. See Super Bright LED's page B8 LED Bulb - SMD Instrument Panel LED and check the dimensions of the base part of the bulb to make sure.
As to the main three bulbs for the main cluster illumination, I believe that has been covered in some other threads; see if a search can turn up anything.
Ed, if I'm not mistaken by the width dimension here and what's listed on the superbright website, these are actually B8.4d bulbs. Does that look about right to you? B8.3d's are supposed to be 10.4mm wide per them and the 8.4's are 12.07mm
BTW, tested all bulbs and all of them work right now! Before pulling the whole cluster out I had bridged across the 2 wires to bypass the dimmer and still had nothing. I'm replacing out the dimmer anyway through Roger coupled with the Protizmo, but not sure what I'm missing here as the real reason no lights.
Only once since owning the car have I actually seen the dash lights working, just randomly came on one night, very dim, but then went out 10 mins later after I went over a pothole/playing with the dimmer. Never came back on again, despite driving other potholes! lol. Sounds like loose connection somewhere, right?
Replacing the dash bulbs is a nice upgrade. But, the one lighting upgrade that has gone unanswered for us poorly illuminated pre 89 owners is better lighting so you can see the instrument panel during the day. I have been toying with DRLs for instrument panel illumination for a while. I think the lights are turned on with a switched ground.
I currently have my dimmer bypassed since I have the LED wedge bulbs in the dash pod but haven't changed all the console bulbs to LEDs yet. My POD bulbs come on with the ignitiion, even if the headlight switch is off - not sure if this is something a PO did or not, but it makes them very visible in the day, and although briight at night, not really an issues. Once I replace the rest of the regular bulbs with LEDs in the POD, I'll hook Ed's dimmer back up. The reason I have the dimmer bypassed is that when I hook up the Protizmo, it works fine for the new LEDs but makes all the other bulbs too dim (HVAC, outside temp, boost, etc). All these gauges use a regular bulb and I need to swap those to an LED version so they will dim down equally with the POD lights.
Anyone know the correct # LED that fits the bulb holders that slide into the openings in standard 52mm (2 1/16") VDO guages like those in this pic in my console?
Ed, if I'm not mistaken by the width dimension here and what's listed on the superbright website, these are actually B8.4d bulbs. Does that look about right to you? B8.3d's are supposed to be 10.4mm wide per them and the 8.4's are 12.07mm
You might be right. What's clearly different, though, are the back sides of the plastic holders; the one in your photo is clearly different (and more similar to the B8.3D or B8.5D) from the B8.4D.
It's notable, though, that '89 and later "digital dash" clusters definitely use B8.4D bulbs.
It sure would help if somebody who has actually replaced these bulbs in '88 and earlier clusters would chime in here with what worked.
If you can't get anybody who has already figured this out, you could always get a single bulb of each type and find out which one works for sure before committing to getting the complete set that you need.
I had to have my 88 odometer fixed twice as well; apparently when you replace the plastic main gear, it's common for the pot-metal gear on the other side to fail. So yeah, Palo Alto speedo did mine again not six months after the first time. Been working for a few years since then.
You might be right. What's clearly different, though, are the back sides of the plastic holders; the one in your photo is clearly different (and more similar to the B8.3D or B8.5D) from the B8.4D.
It's notable, though, that '89 and later "digital dash" clusters definitely use B8.4D bulbs.
It sure would help if somebody who has actually replaced these bulbs in '88 and earlier clusters would chime in here with what worked.
If you can't get anybody who has already figured this out, you could always get a single bulb of each type and find out which one works for sure before committing to getting the complete set that you need.
Yes, indeed. I'll just go ahead and get one of each so I know for sure.
You might be right. What's clearly different, though, are the back sides of the plastic holders; the one in your photo is clearly different (and more similar to the B8.3D or B8.5D) from the B8.4D.
It's notable, though, that '89 and later "digital dash" clusters definitely use B8.4D bulbs.
It sure would help if somebody who has actually replaced these bulbs in '88 and earlier clusters would chime in here with what worked.
If you can't get anybody who has already figured this out, you could always get a single bulb of each type and find out which one works for sure before committing to getting the complete set that you need.
For my 86.5 pod, the correct size was B8.5D. Hope that helps.
Ed
Indicator lights of the 80 and 84 pods take b8 4d with no modification to the hole size.
The general illumination (Gauge backlighting) lights #194 wedge
The pod switches #74 t5 wedge
It looks like it will be the b8.4d for the warning lights based on research so far & what Waynestrutt has posted, but as I mentioned, I am getting one of each to verify so when they arrive I will post up here what the correct size is for us. Your '87 & my '88 are almost certainly the same specs.
01-30-2016, 08:41 AM
