LED Dash bulbs

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RAT ROD AL

MOPAR ARCHAEOLOGIST - one parts hoard at a time!
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Has anyone used these 194 led's in their dash . The regular 194's are so dim I can't read the gauges .
Are they any better ? Do they fit in the dash ?
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Has anyone used these 194 led's in their dash . The regular 194's are so dim I can't read the gauges .
Are they any better ? Do they fit in the dash ?
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I switched to them in mine. They are really cheap on Amazon. They will fit the dash. They do NOT fit the marker or fender indicator lights. Too big.
 
Just a matter of switching the bulbs out ?
Mine is a 74, and has these little black twisty sockets that are super frail. I got lucky and had a spare dash that they were good in. So be careful. Maybe pre-emptively order some if yours is that style also (I don't know what year yours is). They were ALL broke in my dash...but my spares were all ok...

Other than that, Yes. They just plug in place of the others.
 
Mine work great. They have to be in the right polarity to work. In the picture, 194 bulb on the left, LED on the right. Quite a difference. You need a least one non led bulb for a load if you want to make your dimmer work. Maybe your radio light. I left my aftermarket gage bulbs non led.

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Mine is a 74, and has these little black twisty sockets that are super frail. I got lucky and had a spare dash that they were good in. So be careful. Maybe pre-emptively order some if yours is that style also (I don't know what year yours is). They were ALL broke in my dash...but my spares were all ok...

Other than that, Yes. They just plug in place of the others.
Thanks , Mine do have those same twist sockets .I guess I better find some new ones while I'm at it. LOL
 
I think the bulb sockets are 5/8. The 1/2 are more common & I got those by mistake first time
 
I think the bulb sockets are 5/8. The 1/2 are more common & I got those by mistake first time
I did the same. Whatever I ordered first was wrong. I think that eBay link above is correct, but he should measure to be sure.
 
Mine work great. They have to be in the right polarity to work. In the picture, 194 bulb on the left, LED on the right. Quite a difference. You need a least one non led bulb for a load if you want to make your dimmer work. Maybe your radio light. I left my aftermarket gage bulbs non led.

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Those look much better. I will have to get me some.
 
After I did mine I saw somebody put a led light strip inside the gauge cluster. Looked cool & you could change color.
 
Mine work great. They have to be in the right polarity to work. In the picture, 194 bulb on the left, LED on the right. Quite a difference. You need a least one non led bulb for a load if you want to make your dimmer work. Maybe your radio light. I left my aftermarket gage bulbs non led.

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Yes, forgot that important point. They only light up one way. Polarity matters. Good poont!!
 
I got some 194 leds from superbrightleds.com I think they have the sockets too. It was 3 or 4 years ago but were around 2 dollars iirc. Mine work great.
 
5630 dimmable strip LEDs. More even lit lighting. Line the gage bucket, attach wiring to a bulb socket. Peel and stick. About $6 for 5 meters or 13 ft of it. Get the uncoated as it's not in a moisture prone environment. Every 3 segments there is a cut line and solder tabs.

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Polarity sensitive no matter which direction you go be it strip or socketed led. I recommend installing these in the gage panel on the workbench while hooked up to a 12v power supply. This way if they dont light up, you can rotate the bulb 180° and reinstall. This is easier than doing this in the car.
 
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Polarity sensitive no matter which direction you go be it strip or socketed led. I recommend installing these in the gage panel on the workbench while hooked up to a 12v power supply. This way if they dont light up, you can rotate the bulb 180° and reinstall. This is easier than doing this in the car.
Nice! And then you should only have to put a regular bulb in any other socket to be able to use the dimmer switch, correct? Thanks
 
Dad n I swapped to LED similar to the ones you posted Al. Wasnt as great an improvement as we had hoped. They are an improvement but work intermittently for some reason. If I was to do it again I would use Matt's idea, but that involves removing the entire cluster.
Good to know with using a single 194 to operate dimmer switch.
Hey Al lemme know how many sockets u need? I may have extras around here.
 
Dad n I swapped to LED similar to the ones you posted Al. Wasnt as great an improvement as we had hoped. They are an improvement but work intermittently for some reason. If I was to do it again I would use Matt's idea, but that involves removing the entire cluster.
Good to know with using a single 194 to operate dimmer switch.
Hey Al lemme know how many sockets u need? I may have extras around here.
Thanks Steve, but I already ordered the parts last night.
 
5630 dimmable strip LEDs. More even lit lighting. Line the gage bucket, attach wiring to a bulb socket. Peel and stick. About $6 for 5 meters or 13 ft of it. Get the uncoated as it's not in a moisture prone environment. Every 3 segments there is a cut line and solder tabs.

Do they dim with the switch, or did you have to use a pwm dimmer?
 
They somewhat dim on the switch. I never figured out a way to make them dim other than that.
 
My mistake was buying the cheap package of 10 bulb sockets from ebay for my 67 rally dash. They started to fail after a few years. And of course the first to fail were the most difficult to replace, right turn, then left turn. This was with Sylvania #2825 bulbs if that makes a difference. Anyway... 8 of Standard brand sockets, individually packaged, were about 3 dollars each. Good luck with yours.
 
They somewhat dim on the switch. I never figured out a way to make them dim other than that.

That was my reason for leaving a regular bulb in somewhere. Mine wouldn’t dim hardly at all. I figured out that the LED bulbs pull so little current that the resistance in the dimmer switch doesn’t affect them. I changed the two bulbs in my aftermarket gauges back to 194s and now they dim fine. The dimmer switch needs a little more current to operate properly. There are probably better solutions, but this was easy for me.
 
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