I just ordered a set of the 194's 4-LED's for my Autometer gauges. I will post if I can modify them to fit the dash.

 

if you attempt to put 194's in the dash you're going to need a still hand and a dremel to grind away as much of the lens/housing without breaking the bulb. It's roughly 1-2mm wider in diameter than the socket's in the dash.

Unless you manage to pull it off it's:

194 for the Hvac
74 for the dash, keyring
.12" diameter bulb condoms for the IC, Cruise and Foglight switch from: http://www.partsexpress.com/webpage....7&WebPage_ID=3

 

I don't kno a lot, so u probably want someone else's response, but it would seem like then u'd simply want to "normal" 6V leds in series cuz u'd eliminate the resistors, but don't really know. How would you fit them? Good luck

 

Uh.... I did look at what they were then totally ignored it I saw the size, but it didn't do ME any good since I didn't know what to make of it. Right now it still doesn't work, I've been trying to get simple LEDs and just do it all custom-ish but haven't gotten the LEDs yet (radio shack never has blue) right now its sitting with 3 74s and a 194 in it (3 small 1 big) but the needles don't light at all (blue light and red needle don't seem to mix) and the gauge numbers are also very dim. sanding helped a little but still WAY to dim to see. I haven't really gotten around to it since I rarely drive at night, and I've been doin other stuff (like RSB, foglights, etc)/havent been home.

The way I'm currently planning on doing it is to simply take a bunch of 5mm leds from radioshack, 4 red, 8 blue and putting the red so they shine into the needle and on the tachs redzone, and then spreading the 8 blues throughout the gauges so that I can try to have even lighting. But no clue if itl work.

If you succeed please let me kno how and what u used, so I can copy you!!! Good Luck

 

hey guys, i swapped all the lights (except stereo bulbs) with the blue LEDs. the original instructions were a load of help, but to answer some of the previous questions, I was able to use a 4LED in all the places of the 194. You need a VERY steady hand with thte dremel, but it can be done. You have to grind away the entire housing except for the little blue stem at the bottom (this is to keep the two contacts seperated) and gind away a tiny little bit from the board. If you succeed in the dremeling, be careful putting the LED into the socket, because without the outer shell, the whole thing becomes fragile (and if you bend the connections too much, they'll snap and you'll have to dremel all over again)

 

How does it look with the 4-bulb compaired to the single? Where did you get the 4-led bulbs?? Thanks
Kevin

 

Ok, i got done ready the first 2 pages and then noticed that there was 5 so i'm sorry if this has been posted already.

Have you tried white LED's for the intstrument cluster w/ Red LED's for the needles? I'm kinda wanting to go w/ a Defi color scheme since i bought their gauges and i would like to make them all match?

I'm thinking this wont work b/c of the gay green film they put on the gauges, is there any way of gettin that off?

Again i appologize if this was covered but i'm just really lazy... sorry and thanks.

 

With that statement, not a chance It was mentioned earlier but no solution or anything was given since it was determined to be hard and not worth it. . . if my memory serves me right!!! Good luck

 

Infarct, the four LED's are a little bit brighter, but either way it is still dimmer than the stock green lights. The dremmeling is a pain, but I wanted the blue dash to be as bright as possible. I got them from the same store listed in the first post. Like I said before though, you need a very steady hand for this to work out well (and make sure you purchase a few extra LED's to compensate for the first few you botch up) Dont' bother going any higher than 4 LEDs 'cause anything larger will not fit through the holes (unless there is a way to install the LEDs from the frontside of the guage cluster, such as pulling off the guages' face, then you might be able to use somethign larger... i'll have to look into that)
Hope this helps, and if anybody knows how to get to the LEDs from the frontside, we may be able to get things a little more brighter!

 

I don't think you can take off the front (I'd love to, it'd make things... simple! I've read many places that taking off the needles causes them to bounce for ever onwards, even when done professionally, and you'd need to take off the needles to remove it. You could also remove the rest of the thing the needle connects to but it'd involve unsoldering, and doesn't look like a very good alternative. with the big single leds, I was able to get them into the wholes from the front by constantly tilting the thing and using a wire and pliers but it was a pain, and they weren't any brighter so I abandoned it. I'm in Indiana right now (at Rose-Hulman) and won't be back in CA for a few weeks, but I just got normal LEDs, and plan to do it that way. Anyway, GL and let us know if u make progress (especially if its with an OBS

Any luck flatusboy?

 

Me and a buddy cleared the green film off my cluster, but at the very end of the procedure, my buddy *accidentily* pushed the tach needle into the cluster, which has given it a slight skipping action under WOT. The cluster looks great at night, but is rather unevenly lit during dawn and dusk hours. I just purchased an STi cluster off eBay to replace my stock cluster.

BTW, clearing the green film off was a MAJOR PITA!!!!! It required some special tools.

 

Older picture of my cluster. I've since added red incandescents to help fix the dim spot between 4k - 6k on the tach. Looks much better now.