Dash board lights

[Camtron]

how difficult is it to replace the dashboard lights; is it pretty straight forward or are they sealed into the gauges or anything?
I’ve had the dash opened a number of times to replace speakers, radio and wire in a tachometer but, never bothered to look at how the gauges were installed. One of the bulbs on my Speedometer burnt out last night and I can only see half of the gauge at night so, figure this will be a great time to replace them all.

 

[89.Fifth]

You pull off the front bezel first. You have to do that with the gear lever in "1" and by unscrewing it from all the clips along the top and bottom edge. Newer cars will have strong velcro at the bottom too.

Then the speedo has some screws along the edge that hold it in place. I think these are 8mm hex heads. Once those are out you have to unscrew the gear indicator pointer with an allen key. I think that one's SAE and not metric but I forget. Move that off to the side and don't lose the set screw. Finally reach behind the speedo cluster and there's a push clip that attaches the speedo cable to the gauges. It's a pain to get undone but once you've gotten the hang of it you can do it without looking.

Finally the bulbs unscrew from the back. Usually I pull out the blue gels that cover the bulbs and you get a nice warm glow from the cluster that looks like an old radio instead of that dull green. Much brighter and looks nicer.

You can get LED bulbs but the colors are always all wrong.

Hope that helps.

 

[Opticon77]

No minty green glow!? HERETIC!

 

[Camtron]

You pull off the front bezel first. You have to do that with the gear lever in "1" and by unscrewing it from all the clips along the top and bottom edge. Newer cars will have strong velcro at the bottom too.

Then the speedo has some screws along the edge that hold it in place. I think these are 8mm hex heads. Once those are out you have to unscrew the gear indicator pointer with an allen key. I think that one's SAE and not metric but I forget. Move that off to the side and don't lose the set screw. Finally reach behind the speedo cluster and there's a push clip that attaches the speedo cable to the gauges. It's a pain to get undone but once you've gotten the hang of it you can do it without looking.

Finally the bulbs unscrew from the back. Usually I pull out the blue gels that cover the bulbs and you get a nice warm glow from the cluster that looks like an old radio instead of that dull green. Much brighter and looks nicer.

You can get LED bulbs but the colors are always all wrong.

Hope that helps.

Very appreciated, I’ll give it a this weekend. Thanks!

 

[Camtron]

Mission accomplished. Had to take the lower dash trim off (where hood release is mounted) to get my hand back up to the speedo cable clip. Opened the gauges up and removed the blue/green gel covers; Now all my gauges match my tachometer at night and I can see my gauges perfectly.
Thanks for the help.

 

[89.Fifth]

Mission accomplished. Had to take the lower dash trim off (where hood release is mounted) to get my hand back up to the speedo cable clip. Opened the gauges up and removed the blue/green gel covers; Now all my gauges match my tachometer at night and I can see my gauges perfectly.
Thanks for the help.

View attachment 37258

You're welcome! Looks great!

 

[Ele115]

I would love to figure out a factory looking tach for where the huge fuel gauge is then put the fuel gauge in where the idiot lights are on the left, maybe a K-car fuel gauge or something. Someday maybe I'll get to it. That will be the week after I solve famine and peace in the Middle East.

 

[Camtron]

I would love to figure out a factory looking tach for where the huge fuel gauge is then put the fuel gauge in where the idiot lights are on the left, maybe a K-car fuel gauge or something. Someday maybe I'll get to it. That will be the week after I solve famine and peace in the Middle East.

I’ve thought about getting rid of the airbag indicator (air bag is deleted from the car) and replacing it with a small fuel gauge so I can put the tach in the dash we’re the large fuel gauge is but, I think making a whole custom gauge bezel might be the way to go. Not sure...but I really like the fuel gauge that’s the size of Wyoming too lol I’ll figure it one day

 

[Ele115]

The only thing making me postpone doing it to one of my Diplomats is that the cavity where the fuel gauge is is pretty shallow compared to any tach I would put in there, otherwise all you do is pick a tach, get the needle to come through and use dry transfer letters and numbers to turn the silver and black face into the new tach face. I think an old Omni or minivan fuel gauge looked pretty close to put into the small idiot light pod

 

[Ele115]

I think I need to find a spare instrument cluster and play with this. It's bugging me now. A "factory tach" would look cool, but then I bet I get hung up on the fuel gauge part of it. I think I can just put the fuel gauge where the defrost switch is, I'm in South Flo-duh, I don't really need it and then I won't have to disable any idiot lights.

 

[kkritsilas]

Ideal way to do it would be to get Speedhut or Instrument Specialties to create a tach in the right size to fit the gas gauge opening, and to then embed the gas gauge (and low fuel light) inside the tach face. They can do this, I went through the process on their site (I think it was Speedhut's site). Money doesn't permit to do this at this time.

 

[greyghost]

I'm only about 4 years late to the conversation but this topic interests me because it is exactly what I wanted to do on my '79 LeBaron. I often thought, "Why did Chrysler put a huge fuel gauge that's the same size as the speedometer and right next to it? Is this so you can see the gas gauge go down when the speedometer goes up?" LOL! I do however, have a '79 300 that I bought as a parts car and it has the factory tach next to the speedometer. However, the other gauges would take some very creative thinking to install them into my '79 LeBaron. Here are comparison pics.

 

[Ele115]

I have looked into this. There isn't much room It can be done, but I would not attempt it myself unless I was 100% certain it would look factory stock and the fuel gauge would be just right too. I looked at K-Car and minivan fuel gauges trying to find one I could put in one of the small 3 inch pods. I gave up, for now. The tach cannot be very deep. That is an issue. I can get a face made, but there isn't much room until you totally hack up all the plastic

 

[Ele115]

My 78 wasn't built with an oil pressure gauge, so I used the 82-88 fleet gauge. It's 12 volts so wiring is easy and the correct pressure sender is easily available. It's really very tight for space back there but I got it done. I can't be without an oil pressure GAUGE. As you can see, I keep the light too. The "Purchase engine" light isn't cutting it for me. I had to lop most of that one heater core bolt off to get the giant sender to fit. I never replaced the heater core because I would have a 123.83945% chance of cracking a perfect dash. With the distributor in it, everything is packed. I couldn't imagine an HEI distributor back there. I am used to having the sparky thingy in the front.

 

[Duke5A]

I'm forever going to refer to the factory idiot light as a purchase engine light now. Lol.

 

[Ele115]

That's about the only info you get from that thing. When that useless thing comes on, your main bearings are singing "Oh Lord here I come" in E flat

 

[greyghost]

LMFAO!!! My stepmom used to refer to it as the "Replace Engine Soon" light!!

 

[greyghost]

That reminds me, the "change oil soon" warning popped on in my Jeep the other day. Just what I need! Another project!!