CurryRA
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- Sultan, WA
Well, figured I'd share what I spent one of my days off doing while tinkering around on my M35A2.
I've never been overly excited with the function of the dash lights in original form. Maybe it's just me but the ambiant light that's supposed to be absorbed by the side windows of the gauges is so dim that I'd end up in the ditch before I was able to read one of the gauges at night. Ok, it's not that bad, but for Pete's sake, since I'm not going to encountering any hostile forces I think they can be a little easier to read!
So, I bought 20 5mm red L.E.D's on Ebay awhile ago for about $10. Since the individual L.E.D's are 12V I wired each gauge with two L.E.D's in series so that they'd be compatable with the 24V system. I used a total of 14 L.E.D's bulbs for the project but once I was done with all the wiring I only had to hook one wire into the 24V source for the instument lights and then connect a single ground. Easy.
The hard part was VERY CAREFULLY drilling the plastic windows of the gauges to accept the L.E.D bulbs. I ended up using a #8 drill bit which is just a bit on the snug side for the 5mm L.E.D's. Believe me, 5mm is as big as you would want to go if you undertake this project. If I was to do it again I'd probably go with 3mm or something similar. With the 5mm L.E.D's it is a very tight squeeze once the gauges are installed into the panel.
The good thing is that the L.E.D's are hardly noticable installed in the gauges when not "on" unless one knows what to look for. The bulbs are clear but they emit red light so they blend in quite nicely. Also, with two holes drilled in the gauge, all the shavings from drilling and 42 years of accumulated dirt was blown out of the inside quite easily with a little compressed air.
I know some folks are probably not too hot on installing L.E.D's into one of these trucks but the end result of being able to monitor your engine systems easily while in the dark is SWEET. I was really surprised how well these L.E.D's worked the first time I turned everything on. In fact, I'll probably add a potentiometer because their a little TOO bright.
Total cost of the project was less than $10 since I've got L.E.D's left over and the screwing around with it all day was simply priceless.
I've never been overly excited with the function of the dash lights in original form. Maybe it's just me but the ambiant light that's supposed to be absorbed by the side windows of the gauges is so dim that I'd end up in the ditch before I was able to read one of the gauges at night. Ok, it's not that bad, but for Pete's sake, since I'm not going to encountering any hostile forces I think they can be a little easier to read!
So, I bought 20 5mm red L.E.D's on Ebay awhile ago for about $10. Since the individual L.E.D's are 12V I wired each gauge with two L.E.D's in series so that they'd be compatable with the 24V system. I used a total of 14 L.E.D's bulbs for the project but once I was done with all the wiring I only had to hook one wire into the 24V source for the instument lights and then connect a single ground. Easy.
The hard part was VERY CAREFULLY drilling the plastic windows of the gauges to accept the L.E.D bulbs. I ended up using a #8 drill bit which is just a bit on the snug side for the 5mm L.E.D's. Believe me, 5mm is as big as you would want to go if you undertake this project. If I was to do it again I'd probably go with 3mm or something similar. With the 5mm L.E.D's it is a very tight squeeze once the gauges are installed into the panel.
The good thing is that the L.E.D's are hardly noticable installed in the gauges when not "on" unless one knows what to look for. The bulbs are clear but they emit red light so they blend in quite nicely. Also, with two holes drilled in the gauge, all the shavings from drilling and 42 years of accumulated dirt was blown out of the inside quite easily with a little compressed air.
I know some folks are probably not too hot on installing L.E.D's into one of these trucks but the end result of being able to monitor your engine systems easily while in the dark is SWEET. I was really surprised how well these L.E.D's worked the first time I turned everything on. In fact, I'll probably add a potentiometer because their a little TOO bright.
Total cost of the project was less than $10 since I've got L.E.D's left over and the screwing around with it all day was simply priceless.
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