Converted my dash to LED
10-19-2012, 11:47 PM
#1
Race Car
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Location: Austin TX, drinking beer in the garage
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Converted my dash to LED
I converted my 84 dash lights to LED today, and wanted to share how I did it for less than 10 bucks. Something happened the other day under my dash that took out all of my dash illumination. Its not a wiring issue, all the bulbs burned out. I went to radioshack and bought 4 large 12 volt LEDs with the built in resistors and screwed the little nut behind them down till the last few threads, and found that they fit perfectly into the holes where the old bulb holders went. I secured them and wired the power in from the stock harness, and grounded them to screws in the back of the tach and speedo housings, then bypassed the dimmer rheostat. I used orange LEDs for the 2 lights in the speedo, and 1 orange and 1 red for the tach. The orange LEDs are a little brighter than stock, but not too bright, and they are nearly the same color as stock. The red LED went into the left side of the tach and lights up the "redline." I'm very pleased with the results, will post pictures later on.
10-20-2012, 08:49 AM
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Very interested. Getting tired of the seemingly never ending battle to keep the dash lights working in my car. I installed LED strips in my hatch third brake light and am very pleased.
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10-22-2012, 01:07 AM
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A few days of driving later and I'm still extremely happy with the results. It is subtle, unlike some other overly bright LED dashes that can look a little rice. It is dimmer then I expected and my Iphone camera did a poor job of capturing the lighting, but it is actually extremely easy to see at a glance at night and definitely a good bit brighter than factory.
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10-22-2012, 10:09 PM
#10
Did you use LED's from Radioshack and solder one some resistors? I liked the bulbs from superbrightleds.com since they were easily removable. I would like a more permanent solution though.
10-23-2012, 09:58 AM
#11
Three Wheelin'
I know it's more expensive, but I ordered the kit from 944 Online because it was ready to install and did my reflector housings and odometer gear at the same time on my 86 951. It was a nice day of work (including having to repair the plastic piece that holds the shafts for the odometer gears...the plastic had broken in there!) and it works beautifully. I have dimming lights and they aren't too bright even on the brightest setting...and compared to how it was before, it's fantastic. No pictures yet, but with my job I end up driving 35 minutes one way and generally both ways in the dark, so I get to use them a LOT. Very easy on the eye and I like the light color as well.
Would like to get a pic or two once the car is running again...in a couple of days if nothing happens!
Would like to get a pic or two once the car is running again...in a couple of days if nothing happens!
10-23-2012, 01:02 PM
#12
Burning Brakes
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I've switched my entire interior over to LEDs, it took a bit of work but i like the result. I still can't figure out a way to get the one behind the fan speed **** on the temperature control, though...
10-23-2012, 02:48 PM
#13
I know it's more expensive, but I ordered the kit from 944 Online because it was ready to install and did my reflector housings and odometer gear at the same time on my 86 951. It was a nice day of work (including having to repair the plastic piece that holds the shafts for the odometer gears...the plastic had broken in there!) and it works beautifully. I have dimming lights and they aren't too bright even on the brightest setting...and compared to how it was before, it's fantastic. No pictures yet, but with my job I end up driving 35 minutes one way and generally both ways in the dark, so I get to use them a LOT. Very easy on the eye and I like the light color as well.
Would like to get a pic or two once the car is running again...in a couple of days if nothing happens!
Would like to get a pic or two once the car is running again...in a couple of days if nothing happens!
I have already fixed my reflector housing.
10-23-2012, 03:09 PM
#14
Burning Brakes
The **** pulls off and the bulb is in the stalk. My issue is that I haven't been able to get the bulb out to replace it!
10-23-2012, 08:17 PM
#15
Three Wheelin'
Yes, the LED replacement kit replaced ALL the bulbs int the instrument cluster but for whatever reason the red "!" would not work with an LED, switched and flipped it the other way just to see if I had it in wrong and it never would work with an LED but the bulb worked great, so I left a bulb in there...otherwise everything just plugs right in and is ready to go. I've done enough soldering and working things out of late and wanted plug and play and it definitely way. Very glad I got them.
I also pulled those football things off the back of the cluster to clean those grounds as well. Took some effort to pull them out, but they do indeed pull right out.