1st Gen Truck (1981) LED dash lights swap
Dec 11, 2012 | 07:39 PM
#1
1st Gen Truck (1981) LED dash lights swap
LED Dash light conversion:
after 30 years the bulbs in 1st gen trucks are pretty anemic/ for just the guages you will need 6, 13 total if you convert all the bulbs
remove the cluster and you will find the bulb holders, just untwist them and swap out the 194's for the LED's
stock bulb on left, LED on right..
stock bulbs are 194's, if you search superbrightleds.com for 194 LED or T10 you will find a wide assortment available and a wide price range..I got mine off ebay, 10 for $9.99..again there is a wide variety of options and prices
stock bulbs
green bulbs with 5 SMD LED's
installed:
i might swap white LED's down the road...
after 30 years the bulbs in 1st gen trucks are pretty anemic/ for just the guages you will need 6, 13 total if you convert all the bulbs
remove the cluster and you will find the bulb holders, just untwist them and swap out the 194's for the LED's
stock bulb on left, LED on right..
stock bulbs are 194's, if you search superbrightleds.com for 194 LED or T10 you will find a wide assortment available and a wide price range..I got mine off ebay, 10 for $9.99..again there is a wide variety of options and prices
stock bulbs
green bulbs with 5 SMD LED's
installed:
i might swap white LED's down the road...
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Dec 27, 2012 | 05:45 PM
#8
Threw a couple of LED's into the Voltmeter and Oil pressure gauge cluster.
the bulb is a 1445, I just searched 1445 LED bulb on ebay. got a couple of them for $5 delivered.
old anemic output again...I don't think the voltmeter was working..
the bulb is a 1445, I just searched 1445 LED bulb on ebay. got a couple of them for $5 delivered.
old anemic output again...I don't think the voltmeter was working..
Dec 28, 2012 | 07:44 AM
#9
These turned out great. I read through this yesterday and didn't think mine were too bad but last night when I was driving I turned my phone cam on and I couldn't even see my gauges through it. Not too worried though I'm going to be having a dash made for the truck and I have some autometers going in it which will have led bulbs installed before hand.
Jan 2, 2013 | 12:07 AM
#10
Nice!
I was just thinking about this tonight on my drive out to work.
Any plans for the little lamp in the heater controls? I've been trying to track down the P/N for that guy, which gets hard without an FSM.
I was just thinking about this tonight on my drive out to work.
Any plans for the little lamp in the heater controls? I've been trying to track down the P/N for that guy, which gets hard without an FSM.
Jan 2, 2013 | 04:16 AM
#12
Jan 2, 2013 | 04:22 AM
#13
Registered User
Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 125
Likes: 1
These turned out great. I read through this yesterday and didn't think mine were too bad but last night when I was driving I turned my phone cam on and I couldn't even see my gauges through it. Not too worried though I'm going to be having a dash made for the truck and I have some autometers going in it which will have led bulbs installed before hand.
I am looking into doing the same, please let us know how you are going to build it.
Jan 2, 2013 | 06:14 AM
#14
Jan 2, 2013 | 07:26 AM
#15
the reason i want to just have one built is my pad is thrashed and those are super expensive and then the face of the dash where the heater controls are is all cut up and stuff so to me its just easier to build a whole new dash probably cheaper than trying to locate a the parts to make it look new again.
Last edited by shacal13; Jan 2, 2013 at 07:41 AM. Reason: adding info
Jan 2, 2013 | 07:41 AM
#16
Registered User
Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 125
Likes: 1
I am almost a 100% sure I'm going to have a aluminum dash made and then im just going to put auto meter gauges in the aluminum dash. pretty straight forward. sorry for the thread jack didn't mean too. just need to find a local shop that's quick about it as this is my dd lol
Please start a new thread when you go through with this, good luck!
Jan 2, 2013 | 07:43 AM
#17
Jan 3, 2013 | 02:55 PM
#18
It is a #24 bulb. the LED replacement is a T6.5 LED
the #24 on the bottom is tiny compared to the 194 cluster bulbs (upper)
here is what superbright LED's has: http://www.superbrightleds.com/searc...0t6.5%20wedge/
again I ended up going to ebay, ordered a couple of them, should have them here by the end of next week.
Not sure about the 82-83 trucks but on my '81 the bulb is mounted just above the heater controls, not behind it
it actually puts out a ton of light, this is in daytime:
Jan 7, 2013 | 11:07 PM
#20
i now have a 1980 pickup. ok, i was in my gauges today to fix the beam indicator. i fixed it but when i was in the cluster i noticed that all the bulbs were white. in my old 85, some of the bulbs had a green cover to light up green when turning on lights. i put everything back together and the lights still looked greenish. i noticed that the backing of the cluster housing had a green tint which might of contributed to the gauges looking a little green. so that brings me to my question. those of you who did this LED swap and chose WHITE, did you notice any green tint when used in the slightly green back housing?
i hope i made sense...
i hope i made sense...
As far as I've seen all first-gens came with a green-dyed perspex lens between the light bulbs and the back of the gauges. It acts as a filter to keep the harsher spectra of the lamps from blinding the driver at night.
It'll be green with or without those little light bulb condoms.
