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Old Jan 8, 2007 | 10:33 PM
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mbrownone
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Gauge lights replacement

My dash gauge lights seem very dim, and i cant see the left side at all during night drives (where the oil pressure and fuel gauge are). Can this be corrected easily? Possibly change the color while im at it also??

Thanks. Mike
 
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Old Jan 9, 2007 | 12:00 AM
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Just pull the cluster and clean it up.

You can et LED bulbs but thyey WON'T dim with the rheostat.
The bulb Number os 194 and they come in about 5 colours

The ones in there right now are clear.
that with the Blue lens makes the dash GREEN appear

I can't remember what year the dash lights glowed red or orange.

What year is your truck ? ..you didn't say.
 
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Old Jan 9, 2007 | 12:15 AM
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sorry about that, forgot to mention mine is a 78 F250 4x4. I just bought it from an elderly original owner before Christmas and it does need a little TLC (mostly just cleaning so far that i can tell) but overall really great shape....and with only 63K original miles on the 400!

My lights appear GREEN, but cant see any gauges at all about midway from the speedo. Think those bulbs have expired for good.

I never did take the IP out. But if the cluster may just need a cleaning, i think i can do that. If some bulbs are burned out, are they difficult to replace with originals?

Thanks for the info.
 
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Old Jan 9, 2007 | 01:14 PM
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Once you get the cluster out, you will see it's easy to get the bulbs out. 99% of the time it's just corrosion keeping them from burning. Some of the bulb holders also may be brittle and cracked. A pencil eraser works good for shining up the circuit board and connections.

If you would like it brighter, look further down inside the cluster were the lights are, and you may have some colored lenses that give the cluster the green color. These lenses get old and foggy, and block a lot of the light. I knocked them out of my 1980, and the dash is much brighter, but it has a yellow tint to it now which I don't mind, but some people may not like it.

I think someone mentioned that you can go to the store and get bulbs with colored lenses. If that's true, you could knock the factory lense covers out and use the colored bulbs.
 
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Old Jan 9, 2007 | 01:24 PM
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Great, thank you!
 
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Old Jan 13, 2007 | 11:52 PM
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I recently had some dash cluster bulbs on my 2000 Excursion go out. When I took them out and tested them, they were still good. It turned out that they had gotten so silvered on the inside that when inside the dash, they looked basically burned out.

If any more go out, I'm gonna put in LED's

Isaac
 
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