Half the dash lights were out, so after fixing a couple of other issues I pulled the cluster out - polished up the light contacts with some 1000 grit, greased 'em, tested the bulbs and reassembled - I also threw some flourescent orange on the needles, polished the clear cover and pulled those stupid blue filter caps off. Was not able to reach the gear indicator bulb in the time I had so you can see the contrast.
Expense - absolutely zero, and I can actually see my gauges now.

 

looks good.

 

NICE!!! wish i did this before spending 50 bucks....

 

Yep, those damn blue filters are 90 percent of the issue with gauge lights. The main benefit of the LEDs though is reduced load on the electrical system.

 

my lights still flicker and pulse with the engine running even after I swapped in the LEDs. Hopefully that'll change with the HD harness...HOUSTONDAVE that really looks good, plus saving cash is a good thing!!!

 

I already put the headlights and driving lights on relays - ran 10 gauge wire from the battery, stripped it, soldered it solidly to all the left-side posts of a small fuseblock as a bus bar, then on the right side of the fuses have separate relays for low beams, high beams, and driving lights. Would think the remaining aging wire should hopefully handle it... God knows I have cleaned up seemingly every ground in Texas already.

 

Did you clean and grease your grounds throughout your truck. Which lights flicker and pulse?

 

Nice, very nice and thanks for the blue filter tip.

 

is it irritating when driving at night? For example newer cars dim the gauges once the headlights come on to facilitate seeing the road more clearly. Just wondering

 

The alternator can cause that as well if one or more of the diodes quits operating properly.

 

Nice to see someone else puts a vac gauge on their ride... yeah I'm also wondering if that would be too bright at night, if you say it isn't I think i'm going to do it too.

 

wish I had someone with me that knew how to get it out farther than I did when I changed the bezel and tried to fix a couple of lights that are out in mine?
couldn't get the speedo cable out.


I was able to reach them, put new in but they still didn't work, thinking maybe that might of been why the original owner had a replacement gage with the truck when I got it, maybe because the brass contact pad is bad?

 

If the lights are too bright, turn the headlight switch to dim them...

 

Yes, the dimming was turned all the way up for the picture - they dim about 50% which is fine. Given that this is mainly driven in suburbs which tend to have a lot of ambient light from streetlights etc, it works for me.

Stronger66- Removing the cluster is not terribly difficult - usually the worst parts are the speedo cable and the big master plug in back of the cluster which locks into place and can be a bit of a bugger to unplug. I did not even take the circuit sheet off - just carefully polished the contacts with some fine wet/dry in place. Worst case, you could check a wiring diagram to determine which wire is the 12+ for the dash lights at the plug, and jumper to a 12V source like the positive post on your battery - then touch a grounded test light to each side of the bulb socket contacts. This is not modern high-tech stuff, the traces are about an 1/8" across! As long as your test light lights up on one side or the other of the socket contacts on the printer circuit overlay, you're golden. Also make sure that the contacts on the sockets themselves are shiny and bent up enough to contact the circuit contacts - I found two bulbs which started working again once I bent their contacts out a bit. Absolute worst case, that circuit overlay sheet is I believe about $65 or so from various sources like LMC.

 

nice job OP~!