Backlight on Speedometer

[Cwall]

My backlight was working fine when I purchased the vehicle, then all of sudden it won't come on. Is this controlled by a fuse, or will I need to take out the whole speedo (cluster) and maybe replace a bulb? Any information will help. Oh and by the way, I have the Speedometer with the Tach if that makes a difference.

[25Horseplay]

You might need new bulbs (2 in tach cluster) or your dimmer switch may have gone bad.

[ejp2fast]

check fuses and dimmer switch first, and if those are good i have the bulbs and wires set if you need them.

[sam.1956]

I supplemented the little tiny dim bulbs with a 9 inch LED flex strip (from an auto parts store). It just wires into the same place the 2 little bulbs get their power on back of the cluster. Man, what a difference!

[cubstiva1]

I supplemented the little tiny dim bulbs with a 9 inch LED flex strip (from an auto parts store). It just wires into the same place the 2 little bulbs get their power on back of the cluster. Man, what a difference!

sounds sweet, would love to see pics.

[sam.1956]

I'm trying to find the thread where I posted some pics.... senility has set in for sure!

[sam.1956]

OK... some pics of the LED strip I put into my instrument cluster...

Daylight (noontime) today: Instrument lights off. You can see the 2 power wires to the LED strip in the upper right and the other end of the LED strip in the upper left.


Daytime (noontime today): Instrument lights on, full intensity. You oughtta see this at night! I have to keep the intensity cranked most of the way down.


This more closely represents the driver's view, but it's still a bit of a low angle shot. After installing the LED strip, I had to also add a non-reflective pad onto the front, flat surface of the cluster (just behind the steering wheel) to try & knock down the reflections on the windshield.


Low angle shot to show LED strip placement inside the cluster. 2 wires for power run off to the right, up and into the back of the cluster PC board where they are screwed down onto the OEM instrument cluster bulb terminals.

[odiekokee]

What are the #s for the cluster bulbs??

[batstiva]

I think, digging through some old threads, the bulb is #73. Could anyone with a yellow cluster out verify this? It looks like from some pics in some old threads I found, that the yellow clusters use all the same bulbs, and I think they're #73. Anyone?

[TominMO]

What are the #s for the cluster bulbs??

There are two sizes. I pulled them out of a spare non-tach cluster I have. The large center one, between the left and right turn signal lights, has a green rubber thing over it. This is the backlight. I have seen these in parts stores with various color rubbers. No bulb # was on it tho, but you can take it in and match it and get whatever color rubber you want. On a tach cluster, there might be two or even three of them, I'm not sure.

There are also four small lights across the top (on my cluster). They also had no #s, but I'll bet you can also take 'em in and match them. They were clear.

Red is a good color to get because it is on one end of the visible spectrum; it has less effect on night vision than any other color except purple/violet, which is on the other end of the spectrum. But I like my green cluster lights.