CAdot

iTrader: (2)

. . .

RobotMoose

iTrader: (1)

It would be closer to factory incandescents. The light frequencies are a little different, and there will be less of an orange tinge to the light. Not as deep a green as Dropzone's pictures.

If you have ten bucks to spare, pick up a set of white LEDs, give it a test and share it with us, it'd be worth seeing!

toastyjosh

iTrader: (1)

Wow Great post! I really need to do this!

dropzone

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My old eyes didn't notice any green filters on my dash before the swap to green LED's. Looked dim white to me. I had never seen the green slip on covers robotmoose was talking about until trekkerpaul showed them to me.

Bummed..the guy I thought I ordered the t6.5 LED from turned out to be in china..so it could be a few weeks before they get here..

RobotMoose

iTrader: (1)

I've finally gotten around to pulling this little mod together as well. I decided to tear my whole cluster apart, paint the inside of it with metallic silver paint to up the reflectivity, and clean up some junky PO work (they put gun oil in the speedo, which gelled up and stopped it from working).
Anyway, thanks to DZ for introducing these little LEDs, they're pretty darn cool.

Just with instrument lighting:

I have to tinker with the right side of my revcounter, it's a little dim.

With the ignition flipped on:


I had my camera in night scenery mode, and these bulbs are overpoweringly bright to it. Additionally, the belt light timed out just as I took the picture.

Finally, as a note for anyone pursuing this mod, see if you can find good pics of the LEDS before you buy, or purchase them knowing that some of the less expensive ones will only have a single contact per side:

The green one on the left has two contacts to a side. This means it can be plugged into any bucket anywhere.
The blue one on the right has one contact to a side, these have to be plugged in properly to positive and negative. I had a devil of a time getting all these right.

This should not be a dealbreaker, it just takes a little more effort to install them, but don't be discouraged if they don't light up right away!

Again, DZ, than you for creating this thread, it's a good source of information for anyone looking to work over their clusters.

yotantn

As long as I've got my dash pulled apart, I might as well do this too. You just plug em in where the others came out of??
That's waaay to simple. LOL.
On the other hand, my old lights have lasted 32 years in there and still work. How long are these LED's 'supposed' to last?

dropzone

iTrader: (6)

Glad it could help out. It is a pretty low buck mod with some great results

Pretty much just put the LED's in the bulb holder and replace. I would recommend wearing a pair of latex or nitrile gloves just to keep the oil from your fingers from harming the LED's, just like you do to prevent a halogen bulb from being contaminated.
LED's supposedly have a service life of 30,000+ hours

RobotMoose

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[QUOTE=dropzone;52098918


LED's supposedly have a service life of 30,000+ hours[/QUOTE]

That's about right.
They don't produce as much heat as bulbs, so they don't burn up as fast. Really what affects their service life the most is the build quality of the structure and components around them. All the little diodes, resistors and transistors on the board are much more likely to fail with age than the LEDs, and even then, the failure rate of Solid State components is exceptionally low.

The LED itself is a very robust structure, I used to get a kick out of blowing them up on by benchtop power supply when I was a kid. The smaller ones would take just gobs of higher voltage before they would blow. The bigger ones we surprisingly more sensitive.

yotantn

Guess I'll do this mod.
Believe it or not, those are the original bulbs in there.
So, sure as I replace the dash, one of em will blow. LOL.
Can I get these at Advance Auto reckon? Or have to order em.

RobotMoose

iTrader: (1)

I definitely believe it, many of our rigs still have their original wheel bearings or pinion seals, I see no reason why Toyota would skimp out on their bulbs, too!

I don't know if Advance would carry these. They might be worth looking into, though. Be wary of off-the-shelf LEDs from untrustworthy sources, I ran a pair of cheapies from Pep Boys for a couple months, they had uninsulated leads in them that crossed up when I hit a deer, and it burned out my running lights circuit. That was a joy to repair in torrential rain. So Far, Superbrightleds.com seems to market a decent quality product.

snobdds

nice...

yotantn

I found some LEDs, Sylvania 6000 something or others, at Advance that fit mine. They good enough to last a long long time? 13 bucks a bulb, they outta be!
How many will I need for the dash? 2?
I just want to make sure I get a good one to put in there that won't blow. And,Sylvania is a good brand.
Here is the Sylvania bulb: CLICK HERE
Here are some ebay bulbs linked: CLICK HERE
I'm just trying to decide which one to go with. I don't want to take this dash off all over again cause a bulb blew.
Thanks

dropzone

iTrader: (6)

It is mentioned somewhere in the thread, it is 13 if I remember correctly.
$13/each...that is nuts.
You could order them from superbrite leds way cheaper. I boughts 2 groups of 10 on ebay for less than $20-25. They have been fine. I think I did this 6 months or so ago.

RobotMoose

iTrader: (1)

X2, definitely source them from the internet, there are much better prices compared to 13 each. I actually did what DZ did and sourced all of mine off Flea-Bay in groups of ten. I think I've ended up paying about 25 bucks total.

IIRC, speedo and tach each had two lamps, two lamps for indicators, one lamp for temp, one lamp for fuel, one for belts, one for brake, one for brights, one for 4X4, one for battery idiot light, one for oil idiot light. So, I think 12-13 lamps total is about right.

yotantn

WHICH ONE
of those fits my 81? When I used their filter to help me find what i need, for instrument panel, 3 pages show up..just for the instrument panel.
whattheheck.
Thanks

yotantn

I have tried and none of them work, not even with the new connectors. I also tried one from Autozone. The old bulbs work. Any ideas why none of the LEDs are working?

dropzone

iTrader: (6)

LED's are polarity sensitive, did you try rotating them?
or removing them from the connector provided in the amazon pic?

i installed mine in the stock socket connector (cleaned up using a pencil eraser to remove any 'corrosion')

yotantn

In case anyone else needs to know how this ended:

Ok, I got it all fixed. After being told the LEDs were polarized, I didn't know that, I took all of them out.
Hooked up the cluster with a spot that I could get my hand in and tested each of them. I used the left turn signal slot because it was convenient.
I had to flip more than half of the LEDs in the new connectors for them to light up in that turn signal slot. So then I had 10 working LEDs.
I put them all back in the cluster but some of them still didn't work.
So, I took the cluster back out, took them all out and LIGHTLY sanded each copper or brass or whatever it is around each of the holes that they screwed into.
Put them all back in and badabing...they all work now.

yotantn

THERE was my problem. Many thanks!
Mark

dropzone

iTrader: (6)

Awesome. take a pic at night, you will like it