Making Gauges Brighter

Last night I put a new #53 LED in the hole for what I thought was the temp gauge, but it ended up in the charging light hole. Feeling around behind the speedometer and using some phone camera pictures I shot of the backside, I don't see or feel any bulb hole for the temperature gauge -- and I am not ready yet to play contortionist to stick my head back there.

So, how is the temperature gauge illuminated? Does it have its dedicated bulb hole? Any pictures of speedometer backside? Nothing useful online that I found

 

Back in the 80's the wife's Pontiac Fiero had red dash lights and her current Pontiac Solstice have red and they really are good. It takes a little getting used to it and the guage lettering has to be designed for it as its a little darker.

 

Now that's an old fashion notion, get with the modern times and stop paying attention like the rest of 'em.

 

Does this help? It's the later ones when they added the turn signals.

 

If you look at one of these gauges out of the housing, it will be clear. They are just naked gauges - no case.
OMIX-ADA 17209.01 Fuel Gauge & Temperature Gauge Kit for 55-86 Jeep CJ Series

 

Thanks for your answers, folks. So where is all the illumination coming from for the Temp and Fuel in the picture that 55 Willys CJ5 posted last Wednesday (pasted below)? Is it the light behind the odometer? And there must be bulbs off to the sides, at positions #1 and #7-8. Perhaps a total of three lamps? (not including Amp and Oil). The schematic that MickeyKelly sent is not appropriate because of the positions for the brake and turn lights, etc. -- but thank you anyway. (My speedo is for 1966 CJ5). I'm hoping that I don't have to get on my back beneath the steering wheel and poke my head under there.

 

here is the front of an older one I have



here it is flipped over left to right

 

I have been a private pilot with an instrument rating for almost 30 years now. Aircraft instrument lighting is traditionally red for the night vision issue. If an instrument is not designed to be seen under red lights it will not be easy to read.

 

Ronnie,

The fuel gauge, temperature gauge and speedometer are lit up by the two white bulbs. The instrument cluster bulbs illuminate the entire back side of the gauge assembly, thus lighting everything up. Hope this picture with labels helps, click on link:

InstrumentClusterLights.jpg

If you look at the first picture in homersdog post #28, you'll notice the space between the gauge assembly and the speedometer housing. Also note that the assembly is recessed in the housing. This allows the light to "bleed" around and illuminate. There is space between the speedometer face and the gauges that allows the light to illuminate the temp and fuel gauge. Hope this helps.

 

Wow! Homersdog and 55 Willys CJ5: Those are GREAT pictures. They're exactly what I needed. It's very clear now where to reach around to the speedometer backside to insert my new LED #53s. Certainly I am not the only one who struggled with how to replace instrument lights, especially now that LEDs are available and jeepers will want to brighten their speedo/gauge lighting. Maybe Focker can make these permanent photos for "where to locate instrument lighting".

Muchas gracias -- Ronnie

 

Ronnie, do us a favor and post some before and after pics.

 

I tried, but haven't figured out how to shut off the flash on my phone camera to show only the illumination of the speedometer bulbs. In any case, I put one bulb in the left side. Much brighter now. I don't know when I can get to the top bulb. I'll likely have to crawl beneath the dashboard for that one.

 

There are four nuts on the back side of the cluster. You might try removing the cluster. Carefully. Those nuts ground the cluster so don't test the bulb until you reinstall the cluster.
Don't know if that's easier or not.

 

I'm not to that point yet, but I like the idea of LED bulbs. My son did it on his TJ and really looks great.
Good information.
I will file this info on the bulbs for future reference.

Dave