Newbie Question, Dash Light Bulb Voltage

[sloth646]

I have a M1008 and I have tried searching but have not found the answer to my question. Noticed that a few of my dash lights were out so I decided to replace them. I know they are the 194's and the volt meter is a 1445. I hooked a volt meter up to the socket on one of the lights and it read 25 volts. Do I need to find a 24 volt bulb for the dash lights? Or can I use regular bulbs from the parts store? Anyone know which brand is the best or brightest?

On another note I looked into buying LED bulbs. I know to use regular bulbs in the GEN lights. Talked to the people at superbrightleds.com and they said that they do not make 24 volt LED's in the 194 and if I installed the regular LED 12 volt 194 that they would burn out.

I don't know enough about electrical and I would hate to install something that would malfunction. I would be thankful for any insight.

 

[Warthog]

The only socket that "should" read 24v on a stock system is the GEN2 socket. Everything else is 12v.

They all are 168s and the GEN2 is a 194.

The 168s are 5w bulbs and the 194 is a 3w.

At 24v, the 194 will burn at the same brightness as the 168s at 12v

We have covered the LED issue many times. Just don't use them in the GEN1 or GEN2 sockets. If you do your alternators will stop working.

There are even some writeups about troubleshootiung the instrument cluster, cleaning and painting, and the LED install. All available at your fingertips thru the search function.

 

[steelandcanvas]

NAPA should have the correct lamps for your instrument cluster. Incandescent lamps are cheaper. Just my .

 

[bkwudzhom]

I recently had to go through my dash cluster and had some of the same questions. If you will go to the CUCV section and do a search you will get access to more information than I could possibly put in here. That being said--There are 2 diffrent bulbs. One is the 168- it is the most common. The 194 is only in 2 spots one is in one of the GEN lights-(I think it is the Gen 2 light) and the far upper right light for the fuel guage. I would remover the cluster and just do a through cleaning first. could just be a bad connection.

Warthog has made a thread (I think it is a sticky in the top half of the CUCV forum) that gives more information on the cluster than you thought existed.
Check it out then PM me if you need to. I will be putting mine back in this afternoon.