68 Barracuda dash panel help

[hemibadfish]

Anyone have pictures and details on identifying what bulbs illuminate what. I was thinking of converting to LED bulbs and would like to know which ones to pull from the back side without removing the cluster.

Thanks in advance.

 

[1967 'cuda]

The locations of the bulbs is approximately where I made the colored dots. Green is where the blinker bulbs are located, yellow is where the gauge illumination bulbs are located, and the red dots are where the idiot lights are.
View attachment Capture4a.jpg
There is a good article from Mopar Muscle magazine about a '67 Barracuda dash restoration here.

http://www.moparmusclemagazine.com/...967_plymouth_barracuda_dashpanel_restoration/

Some of the pics they have may help you to ferret out from the backside just where those bulbs are located.

 

[Rocky_JS]

all can be changed from behind w/o cluster removal. Some are just harder to get w/o removing it.

 

[4spdragtop]

Dad n I changed bulbs in his 67 cuda to LED while his inst bezel was out. Some worked, some didnt. Not impressed. When the car gets touched again, I think bulbs will be put back where "warning" bulbs go...oil, brake, high beam etc. LEDS only for illumination on the inst faces. Then I will chk for proper operation on LEDs and bulbs.

 

[RedFish]

Dad n I changed bulbs in his 67 cuda to LED while his inst bezel was out. Some worked, some didnt. Not impressed. When the car gets touched again, I think bulbs will be put back where "warning" bulbs go...oil, brake, high beam etc. Then I will chk for proper operation on LEDs and bulbs.

You might add how many times you have already went through the panel R&R process.
Fun aint it ? ... NOT !
Sure it gets easier with practice but the odds go in favor of breaking something.

 

[4spdragtop]

You might add how many times you have already went through the panel R&R process.
Fun aint it ? ... NOT !
Sure it gets easier with practice but the odds go in favor of breaking something.

Yep, it definitely aint fun. Dads is 67 with AC, so it made it even more a pain in the arse. There was no way I could get to all the bulbs without removing the bezel. Me being a dumbass should have bench tested the bezel once we swapped bulbs.
And yes the chances of breaking something are good! If you remove it please for the love of the Mopar Lord buy an inst bezel nut remover for the switches. Very cheap on Ebag for about $10

 

[RedFish]

Yep, it definitely aint fun. Dads is 67 with AC, so it made it even more a pain in the arse. There was no way I could get to all the bulbs without removing the bezel. Me being a dumbass should have bench tested the bezel once we swapped bulbs.
And yes the chances of breaking something are good! If you remove it please for the love of the Mopar Lord buy an inst bezel nut remover for the switches. Very cheap on Ebag for about $10

Guess what ? Bench testing the bulbs makes no difference in the end.
The LED bases fit these sockets soooo poorly that bumps in the road can make them come and go.
The thing is... the contacts inside the socket should touch the bulbs wire pigtail which is backed up by glass.
Not only is the LEDs wire smaller but the glass changes to plastic. So even if the contact is there initially the wire will fade into the plastic which was thinner than the glass to begin with.
I'm done. Good luck to all

 

[krazykuda]

Yep, it definitely aint fun. Dads is 67 with AC, so it made it even more a pain in the arse. There was no way I could get to all the bulbs without removing the bezel. Me being a dumbass should have bench tested the bezel once we swapped bulbs.
And yes the chances of breaking something are good! If you remove it please for the love of the Mopar Lord buy an inst bezel nut remover for the switches. Very cheap on Ebag for about $10

Any links to the tool? I always used two opposing small screwdrivers... :banghead:

 

[1967 'cuda]

Dad n I changed bulbs in his 67 cuda to LED while his inst bezel was out. Some worked, some didnt. Not impressed. When the car gets touched again, I think bulbs will be put back where "warning" bulbs go...oil, brake, high beam etc. LEDS only for illumination on the inst faces. Then I will chk for proper operation on LEDs and bulbs.

I've change almost all of our vehicles over to LEDs. I've had very good luck. They all work and have worked without problems for years. I made the change to brighten up the instrument clusters. After so many years, the florescent paint on these old gauges fade and no longer reflect the light like they used to. If I recall correctly, the LEDs have to be put in with the proper polarity, so I sometimes had to remove some of the bulbs and turn them 180' to make them work. I also found that not all of the florescent bulbs were of the same intensity, so I searched eBay for the ones with the brightest rating I could find. One of the other advertized benefits is that they are supposed to outlast conventional bulbs. I don't know why others have had bad luck with them. I haven't. The only issue that I really had was when I tried using some of the colored LEDs. - They didn't seem to illuminate near as well.

 

[Rocky_JS]

tool

[ame="http://www.ebay.com/itm/dash-bezel-tool-Dart-duster-charger-mopar-hemi-dodge-Plymouth-coronet-dart-GTX-/200745933545?pt=Vintage_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&fits=Year%3A1967%7CModel%3ABarracuda&hash=item2ebd63dae9&vxp=mtr"]Dash Bezel Tool Dart Duster Charger Mopar Hemi Dodge Plymouth Coronet Dart GTX | eBay[/ame]

 

[momoparman]

Superbriteleds.com

There are lots of manufacturers of LED lamps so buyer beware. I have a box with many that claimed to put out X lumens but they either failed or didn't work at all. I have been using Superbriteleds.com for a few years for personal and business projects and have had excellent luck with them.

Keep your warning lights all clear or white and get leds with the highes lumen output possible. A lumen is a measure of light intensity if you didn't already know.

I did a combo of blue for faces and white on indiscators for my fatblufish and did all white on Pams Jamaican Blue Baby. Here's a shot of mine.. Have had zero issues with my dash lights. I also have LED parking/turn and brake lights and those work awesome as well. Must have an LED flasher for the full conversion though.
SBLEDs carries them as well.

Also recommend grounding the circuit boards by running a ground wire around the ground screws that hold on the circuit boards then back to the body. Need to take out the cluster to do that though.

Good luck on your conversion and post some pics when done.

My $.02

Mop

 

[TrailBeast]

Guess what ? Bench testing the bulbs makes no difference in the end.
The LED bases fit these sockets soooo poorly that bumps in the road can make them come and go.
The thing is... the contacts inside the socket should touch the bulbs wire pigtail which is backed up by glass.
Not only is the LEDs wire smaller but the glass changes to plastic. So even if the contact is there initially the wire will fade into the plastic which was thinner than the glass to begin with.
I'm done. Good luck to all

I solved that by backing the wire with a small peice of soda can aluminum contact cemented under the contact wire.
They all work fine now and are not touchy about being moved around.

If I recall correctly, the LEDs have to be put in with the proper polarity, so I sometimes had to remove some of the bulbs and turn them 180' to make them work.

This is correct, and a VERY good point to bring up.
The polarity of the bulb in the socket is a MUST, and usually the cause of some of the lights not working.
As Del told me. "They are diodes you know" but I didn't think about it at first, but it hit me later as I was putting them in.

All of my brake, tail, and parking lights are LED's and it makes a HUGE difference in power draw.
It takes less than a quarter of the power it did with standard bulbs, so it is WAY easier on the turn, brake, and light switches.

 

[RedFish]

I don't think the current draw is a factor worth considering at all. Contact wear in brake lamp switches and turn signal switches comes from repeated use. That doesn't change.