Burned out dash lights on the deuce

[Jinx]

I wound up giving my deuce a seriously long workout yesterday. It got a nice long drive of about 200 miles round trip when I went to pick up an M105A2 trailer that was for sale on Craigslist. The darnedest thing happened on the way home. When I was about 30 miles from home one of the dash bulbs burned out. I didn't think too much of it because I had just replaced both bulbs a couple of months ago and figured that bulb was defective. Then 15 minutes later the second bulb burned out. (I want to say they were NAPA 870 bulbs? It was the standard bulb for the truck anyways.) So I wound up driving the last few miles without any dash lights.

The problem isn't the switch, since they burned out at different times. I had set the dash lights to bright and they were set to on during the entire time down, and the entire time back. What do you think caused them to burn out? Is my truck giving off too much voltage, or could they have overheated from being set to bright instead of dim for a long period of time? Anyone experience this before or have recommendations for better bulbs?

 

[clinto]

I'd put a multimeter probe on the sockets with the switch set on high and see what you get.

 

[atankersdad]

I just had 2 deuces delivered that I recovered from Iowa. One had dead batteries so I had to slave it after PM'ing the truck. It started and ran to the spot where i park and while sitting to let the turbo cool off, both headlights blew out. Truck ran great. Next day I started up the truck and found the voltage was >30 volts. I must adjust the voltage and install 2 new headlights and try again..

 

[Jinx]

Any instructions on adjusting the voltage if I find it is too high? I'd assume there is an adjustment screw or something around the generator/alternator.

 

[cranetruck]

The correct bulb is the #1829 with a life expectancy of 1,000 hrs.
Switch to #356 for better illumination, the filament is in a better position.
To adjust the altenator, see image (from the PS magazine section).

 

[brianrbull]

Has anyone tried the LED HUMMVEE dash light bulbs? they have 18 LED's are manufactured by LEDtronics.
Part #BSD-1482-006a I will try to find a photo of them.

 

[Jinx]

The correct bulb is the #1829 with a life expectancy of 1,000 hrs.
Switch to #356 for better illumination, the filament is in a better position.
To adjust the alternator, see image (from the PS magazine section).

Thanks for the info. I'll switch to the 356 bulb. My speedometer gauge has always been under-illuminated. I will multimeter the voltage first and set it to 28.5 volts first though.

 

[Jinx]

There's a second problem and rather than starting a new thread, figured I would post it here.

After driving 100 miles to my destination, I noticed dripping coming from a hole at the bell housing under the truck. (It's the hole that can be plugged for driving in water.) The drip was motor oil. It was dripping about 1 drop per second at first but quickly slowed and stopped after the truck cooled. I had been pushing the truck down the freeway at between 50 and 55 miles an hour for the past 2 hours. Given it only had 8000 miles on it since the truck was rebuilt in 1991, there are probably some dried out seals. I checked the dipstick and it showed a little over full after the truck cooled down so I felt comfortable driving it back. Should I replace the rear main seal just to be safe, or live with some oil dripping after long drives?

 

[Chevytruck]

any liquid on clutch = bad, id replace the seal just to be safe, but that's my opinion

I'm sure a more experienced person will chime in

 

[Jinx]

It didn't occur to me that oil was getting on the clutch, but now that you mention it, that could be a serious problem.

I may start a new thread if nobody sees it here that can help.

 

[Jinx]

So I called NAPA for the 356 bulb. They said non were in stock and nobody had singles. The only way to get them was to buy a box of 10 at $2.99 a bulb. I wasn't going to do that, so I checked eBay and found a seller selling the same box of 10 bulbs for only $7.50 after shipping. That's a much better deal Even if these turn out to be Chinese knockoffs. At least I will have 10 of them.