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So looking to see what you guys think and where I should try looking because I'm at a complete lost.
I have a 1986 Ford F-150 base model with the 4.9l straight 6 motor.
my issue is that when I turn on my lights everything turns on but the lights that light up the dash are "very" dim. even with the dimmer turned all the way up. the rest of the lights that are controlled by the dimmer are bright and work but not the dash lights. so if anyone has had this issue before or knows where else I should look to try and fix this so I can remove my flashlight and still be able to see that would be awesome .
Any help would be GREATLY appreciated thank you in advance.
Very common problem, there are a few threads on it. The easiest and cheapest is to pull the cluster out, pull the bulbs out of the circuit board, and take a pencil and poke the green/blue lenses out in front of the bulbs. These lenses get old and fogged up, and block the light.
That will give you a bright dash, but it will be yellowish color of the bulbs. In those threads some of the guys talk about colored bulbs you can get to give yourself different colored light if you don't like the yellow light of the stock bare bulb.
alright so its something on the inside of the dash more then likely?? ive been trying to find an issue in the wiring with nothing to show lol . ill try that and see if that works.
This is a thread I started when I restored and converted all my dash lights to LED. I went with a Ultra blue LED which I listed all the ebay ads at the time for the bulbs I used, they should still be active as I bought in bulk from Ebay businesses that sells LEDs.
A guy on the IDI diesel forum recently posted this... low tech but by the picture looks effective at brightening up the dash lights.
Originally Posted by madpogue
Well, while we're slightly hijacking Jan's thread, an update. I now have a tach! That yard came through; I found another truck in another of their yards with the right dash. Dude I Emailed followed up, confirmed it's the right thing, sent it out no extra charge! All-around better shape (sharper lettering, etc) than my dash, so rather than swapping the circuit board, etc, I just used the whole dash. And double-bonus, it has a trip odometer.
Some minor mods, same as I did on the old dash. Painted the needles fluorescent orange. And create about 1/8" space between the mask and main panel, using nuts as spacers. Also use EPDM foam strip to surround it, and between the compartments for the indicator lights. This allows the green illumination lights to flood more light on the dials.
Alas, this newest dash that came didn't have a lens, and both the other dashes are no trip-meter, so no hole in the lens for the reset button. Also, there was no actual button on the reset trigger on this dash. But I didn't want to give up that trip meter. So, I found some wooden dowel (3/16", maybe?) in the basement, cut off about 1.5", "painted" it with a black magic marker. Cut a slot in the end to wedge it onto the trigger. Eyeballed a location, then drilled a hole in one of the masks. Works and looks pretty-much factory. And plenty of night illumination:
That's with plain-old old-school tungsten peanut (194) bulbs.
Oh, and a little reverse sticker shock. After seeing them go (or not...) on eBay for $200, $250 or more, and the last "affordable" ($100) one being sold out from under me, I got this one for $65 WITH the shipping.
This is a thread I started when I restored and converted all my dash lights to LED. I went with a Ultra blue LED which I listed all the ebay ads at the time for the bulbs I used, they should still be active as I bought in bulk from Ebay businesses that sells LEDs.
Rusty that is an AWESOME thread... went straight to my bookmarks. Thanks for sharing that.
I did the same thing with mine. Remove the blue diffusers and install the LEDs. I went with the green ones and it looks exactly like the picture. I'm very happy with the results. Just remember the LED bulbs are polarized so if they don't work you'll have to turn them around the other direction. You'll need five bulbs for the illumination part of the cluster.
just wanted to let you all know I took out the dash to find 2 of the lights were burned out. replaced those to and works better for now wil problly go back in and replace with leds when I get some more. thanks everyone for the places to check and things to try and I will keep it all in mind for future.
I installed a set last month in mine and had similar results, well worth the time and effort! The old blubs were tired and ready to go. Tried to get a few pics for you, but they didn't come out as well as the other guys did.
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