LEDS dash light bulb replacements.

[Unibodyguy1]

Does anyone know of a source for replacement dash lights for our trucks, that would be a LEDS replacement?? Most of the stock bulbs in my truck
( 61 Unibody) are the two post 1616's for the most of them. I'm rewiring the truck and would like to upgrade and get some brighter lights for the dash also. I already have a 105 AMP alternator.

Michael

[greythorn3]

Does anyone know of a source for replacement dash lights for our trucks, that would be a LEDS replacement?? Most of the stock bulbs in my truck
( 61 Unibody) are the two post 1616's for the most of them. I'm rewiring the truck and would like to upgrade and get some brighter lights for the dash also. I already have a 105 AMP alternator.

Michael

waht sucks is you cannt dim leds...

Ray

[Slick Fan]

I saw a seller on eGouge a few weeks ago that seemed to have a decent selection, but they were more of the newer styles...the 194 style bulbs.
That may be a good place to start looking.


Not being able to dim the lights would kinda suck too, I hadn't thought of that one before.

[willy3486]

This question came up on the old site. I posted a how to on how to make your own there at the old site. But its really easy to do. All you need is some LEDs and I think 470 ohm resistors. just make sure the diode is the right polarity. Just crush the old glass part and take it out. That leaves you with the Brass base, but make sure you don't bust the bottom. wrap one side of the resistor on the correct polarity for positive of the diode. Then put the resistor in the base part that is the positive voltage. Then solder the negative side of the LED to the side of the bulb base. Thats all there is to it. If you are nt sure just ask a buddy that may be familiar with electronics. ITs one of the easiest tricks you can do. 5 bucks of parts and one Sat afternoon and you have a whole lot of them.

[GLindley]

ITs one of the easiest tricks you can do. 5 bucks of parts and one Sat afternoon and you have a whole lot of them.

But, are they dimmable?

[blackagatha]

I DO know that LED brake/tail lights utilize the same LEDs and can have the voltage cut to a "normal" level for full brightness, or cut in half from that and be half- brightness.

I don't know what these voltages are, but an LED WILL function on less than it's full voltage.

[willy3486]

ITs one of the easiest tricks you can do. 5 bucks of parts and one Sat afternoon and you have a whole lot of them.

But, are they dimmable?

YOu know I can't remember because its been 10 years since I designed anything with a led other making a bulb but you might could go with a lower ohm rating for the resistor. I seem to remember it may make it dimmer, I don't remember offhand without experimenting. Seems like if they do dim they don't have the varible as a bulb. In other words they dim and go off fast.

[Unibodyguy1]

Willy, thanks for the instuctions on how to change it over. The reason I asked in the first place was I show a guy at a car show last fall and he had LEDS dash light in his 56 F100, I just thought there was a replacement bulb out there I was missing, looks like a lot more too it than that I guess. And the dimming issue, I didn't even think of that I very seldom dim my dash lights anyway. Well if nothing else I'd like to possibly put in a little brighter stock bulb, does anybody have any part numbers or a site or something that I can look at to get something brighter than the stock 1616's that I currently have. I've just always had a little problem with them not being quite as bright as I'd like them to be.

thanks,
Michael

[Lowell]

Im sure the led conversion would work great for the turn signal and high beam indicaters ,but not sure how well they would work for lighting up the speedometer and gauges . It wouldnt cost that much to expermient though.

[Truckfarmer]

To find a great source for LED lights, truck on down to the biggest truck stop you can find. The assortment is huge.

[blackagatha]

To find a great source for LED lights, truck on down to the biggest truck stop you can find. The assortment is huge.

mmmm rip off truck lights.....

Speaking of such things, I saw a cable TV bucket truck with the coolest little single LED marker lights the other day. Were pretty big/looked kinda heavy duty, ANybody know where I might be able to find some like that?

[PJtheRat]

I have played with some to put in as the turn/brite indicators, & came up with some numbers for my use/amusement. 4.7 K was about right, and about as small a resistance value as I would use. More resistance was dimmer, less caused it to let the smoke out (that was the amusement part). Have not figured out if the stock dimmer knob will give enough resistance change to make them work as illumination lamps. As Willy says, it is kind of tight to dial in the right resistance for the right brilliance. I guess that's another rainy day project...
An old display system I worked on for amtracs used an interesting LED dim circuit, it pulsed DC from two sources for daytime running/high brite, and cut one when the lights were on, causing half brilliance...way too much design to go through for a little thing like this.

PJ

[Unibodyguy1]

Truckfarmer,
yup already saw a lot of them at truckstops. Thanks for everybodys responses on this, I really appreciate it.

Michael