Re: [Amc-list] Inst. cluster lights

[Wrambler242@xxxxxxxxxxx]

For led's in mine I bought ready to use 10mm blue led.
Ground it flat on the end with the bench grinder, left it rough.
Then ground of the rear lip of the led, stripped the conatcts out of the Autometer bulb holders, fed the wires thru and wired them up.
   They provide a perfect blue light, but just barely, could stand a tounch more, but they are good enough.
Check engine light circuit on Jeep efi will light the led with a light so dim it is only visible at night.
   I like it as it is perfect to show that a connection is present and eveything is fine! kind of like the glow from a cigarette a 1/4 mile away at nigh, or the last ember in a dying fire. oh, my CEL led is red.
    There's some pics of how I did mine over on photobucket under Wrambler_242 . Do a user search.

--
Mark Price
Morgantown, WV
1969 AMC Rambler, 4.0L, EFI, T-5
2004 Grand Cherokee Laredo, 4.7L, Quadratrc II
" Chronic Pain Hurts"

 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Tom Jennings <tomj@xxxxxxx>
> Keith Evenson wrote:
> > Hey, does anyone know if there is a modern replacement light bulb for 
> > an early AMX instrument cluster? I have a 70 Javelin and a 68 AMX On 
> > the 70 the entire instrument cluster is lit up very well but on the AMX 
> > I am lucky to see most of the speed O.  There are bulbs in all of the 
> > wholes and they work but they all seem so dim it is hard to see 
> > anything. Has anyone come up with a fix for this? Any help would be 
> > great.
> 
> Have you taken the bulbs out to look at them? I've found two things that 
> over the years contributes to the candle-in-a-dark-cave dash effect.
> 
> * The bulbs themselves get silvered on the inside! The filament metal 
> evaporates and deposits on the inside glass. The lamps still "work" but 
> are super dim. Replacement time.
> 
> * The heat from the bulbs discolors the white plastic in the dash 
> assembly to a greyish yellow. Requires disassembly and cosmetic surgery, 
> usually flat white paint.
> 
> * The heat from the bulbs causes convective air flow and pumps dust and 
> smoke through the gauge assembly, giving everything a dirty film. 
> Cigar/cigarette smoke is ruinous here! It's really noticable!
> 
> * Heat and age warps the other plastics in there, like the little tubes 
> and guides that separate TEMP OIL ALT GEN etc from each other, causing 
> light to leak in and out.
> 
> I've renovated the dash cluster on my Hornet and American. If you're 
> good at plastic car models, or model railroad type work, it's easy and 
> fun, once you get the miserable thing out of the car. On warped parts, 
> you have to improvise, but a lot of the parts are not seen once 
> assembled, so buildups with epoxy and plastic and paint work fine.
> 
> 
> 
> I've used LED lamp replacements, but there's problems with those that 
> I've used.
> 
> One, LEDs are very directional, so they're really bright in a narrow 
> beam. However, if you look inside them carefully you'll see that they 
> are almost entirely clear plastic, with the LED down near the base. 
> Hacksaw the tip off, and leave it rough. This diffuses the light and 
> mostly does the trick (they look like crap in your hand though :-). You 
> can also run rough (100, 220) grit sandpaper over the "bulb" and get 
> sort of the same effect.
> 
> For dash illumination, the lamps need to put out a lot of light 
> SIDEWAYS, eg. 90 degrees from the socket direction. LEDs put out light 
> straight out of the socket. Not compatible.
> 
> 
> Two, for some applications they don't draw ENOUGH curent! Alternators 
> and oil idiot lights. As I discovered, even modern 3-wire GM style 
> alternators need "some" current through the idiot light to turn on. An 
> old fashioned lamp draws like 100mA - 300mA, and the LED lamp is like 
> 25mA. My alternator won't start (light is on) until I rev it, just once, 
> past 2000 rpm. Then it works great. One of these days I'll put it back...
> 
> The oil idiot light, this seems silly, but is very annoying... the LED 
> draws SO LITTLE CURRENT that water on top of the sender screwed into the 
> block makes the light come on dim.
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