I recently bought a 74 f100 and I decided to rebuild the instrument cluster cause several lights didn't work. Anyway, I noticed that the high beam indicator doesn't have the red film for the bulb to shine through, but it has a piece of plastic that has hi beam printed on it, and a flashlight barely will shine through. I thought it may have a light in the speedo but it doesn't. Has anybody else run into this? Thanks for any suggestions

 

Early-style clusters (like your '74) have a red high-beam light, whereas later models have a separate small blue light at the top of the speedometer. The reason for the switch was because there was a federal mandate sometime during these years that required a "fasten seat belt" warning light in the dash. The original high-beam light got replaced with a fasten belts light, and the high-beam light got moved to the top of the speedometer.

The original-style red high-beam light should be directly to the left of the left turn signal indicator. The "lens" should be counter-sunk slightly. It won't appear red when the light is off, but shining a light directly behind it should make it appear red. I'm not sure how well you can see it with just a flash light; the original 194-style bulb illuminates only a small cavity so as to direct the beam toward the lens of the warning light.

 

Thanks for the information. I guess what through me off about the light was when I held the front part of the cluster up to the window, I could light shining through all the cavities except for the high beam. So I took out the film and took my little pen light abd I could barely see the light shone through. Its pretty insignificant but I am curious about if anybody else has noticed this.

 

HIGH beam light is the RIGHT indicator cavity, or right turn signal... BRAKE warning light is left or left turn signal.

Josh

 

Are you sure there isn't crud in there? Just undo the attaching bolts and seperate the halves and take a look. You can even pop out the red film and clean it.

When the light is lit the HIGH beam indicator is pretty bright at night, it will light up the cab a little with a red glow.

Josh

 

Yeah I have it stripped all the way down cause the printed board was in pretty rough shape. I took the film out and cleaned it up and the light barely shines through. I must have gotten the monday morning or friday afternoon panel.

 

Thanks for the correction. I was looking right at a picture as I typed that and managed to flip them anyways.

 

Well, you had me second guessing myself... I swore I remembered that red "glow" being on the right side so I had to actually go outside and check.

Josh

 

Hey fordman141, mine is the exact same way. I cleaned and tore everything apart too and same results. I just figure Ford made it dark so there isn't an annoying bright red light in the driver's eyes messing with them when high beams are on.

 

Yeah that's the only thing I could think of as well confederate. Its pretty insignificant but I was just curious. Thanks for all the help fellas.

 

That would make sense. On my '73 Galaxie (not a truck, I know), all of the idiot lights look just like the lights on same-era trucks: rectangle with white letters that lights up red when lit, even the same font for the letters. However the "background" that actually lights up red for the high-beam light is a much smaller rectangle than the warning lights. I figured it was probably to help you differentiate between an actual warning light coming on. I think if the high-beam light on my Galaxie was the same brightness and "size" (if that makes sense), it would be hard to tell when the light next to it comes on, which is the brake warning light on this vehicle.

Although, the couple of times the brake light has come on, I didn't need a light to tell me that I didn't have brakes.

 

My 1973 Hi-Beam light was dimmer than all the rest when lit up.

The confederate has the right idea. if the light was real bright it would give you head aches and bother you when you are driving at night.

 

That makes good sense.