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After a few different ideas and a couple fully built units, I have finally made a Tach cluster that is backlit brightly and evenly across the board, with no dim spots or reflections / glare.
In all pictures with the LEDs. I have my exposure as Locked as it can be with my phone, and ISOs locked to the lowest possible, 100. This means that it is much brighter when you see it in person, but I wanted it to be easier to tell where the LED conversion was evenly backlit.
First, for comparison, here is an Unmodified Orange Faced Tach Cluster:
Alright, now onto the supplies list. You will need:
10 pack of T5 LED
10 pack of T10 LED
Soldering Iron
Scissors
Foil Tape (Usually found with HVAC supplies)
Electrical Tape
Super glue
Some wire
A flexible strip of High Density 5050 LED
Srewdriver
Step drill bit
Pliers
Onto the build!
First, open the cluster up. You are going to remove the top cover with the downlights, the lens, and the gauge face.
The inside will look something like this:
The 4 holes for the Backlighting are pretty covered, there is only a small slit for the light to actually come out. We will start by drilling them open and removing the plastic. First, make pilot holes in these general locations marked in Blue:
Then, use a step bit to drill them out fully. Be careful around the edges of the electronics inside.
Then, take some pliers and break off the plastic gussets and leftover cylinders in the blue marked areas.
Now take the foil tape and start taping the entire interior of the cluster. This will add reflectivity so our lights will spread more evenly. Be sure to cover the few resistors that are exposed inside with Electrical tape, as the foil tape is conductive.
Here it is fully foiled:
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I then prepared the LED strips to fill in the gaps where the stock 4 bulb locations can't quite reach. I cut the 5050 Strip into 3 sections each with 3 LEDs. The strip is built to be cut, you will see where they can be cut and then soldered together. I placed electrical tape under the LEDs so the wires wouldn't arc across the foil tape. I also chose to remove the normal double sided tape from the strip and use Super Glue instead, as the normal tape degrades fairly easy on cheap LED strips.
I wired my 3 lengths together in parallel, then brought the tail of the wire through an unpopulated hole on the right side, where I then screwed it into the factory Illumn circuit.
Then, I replaced the 4 stock bulbs with the T10 LEDs and tested it all at once.
With face laid loosely on top:
Now we move our attention to the down lights. You will need the T5 Leds for this. Please note that unlike incandescents, the LEDs are all polarity sensitive. If it doesn't work when you put it in, flip it around!
Add 2 small squares of foil tape under the bulb seats. Do not foil the whole thing, and do not foil the vertical piece on the front. This will cause glare in the lens that is pretty noticeable.
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While you are here, it would be a good idea to polish up the lens. I used Meguiars Plast-X, which is built for clear plastic, it works wonders.
Now, just assemble and enjoy your bright, evenly-lit Tach Cluster! It even retains the ability to be dimmed using the factory dimmer switch!
In all pictures with the LEDs. I have my exposure as Locked as it can be with my phone, and ISOs locked to the lowest possible, 100. This means that it is much brighter when you see it in person, but I wanted it to be easier to tell where the LED conversion was evenly backlit.
First, for comparison, here is an Unmodified Orange Faced Tach Cluster:
Alright, now onto the supplies list. You will need:
10 pack of T5 LED
10 pack of T10 LED
Soldering Iron
Scissors
Foil Tape (Usually found with HVAC supplies)
Electrical Tape
Super glue
Some wire
A flexible strip of High Density 5050 LED
Srewdriver
Step drill bit
Pliers
Onto the build!
First, open the cluster up. You are going to remove the top cover with the downlights, the lens, and the gauge face.
The inside will look something like this:
The 4 holes for the Backlighting are pretty covered, there is only a small slit for the light to actually come out. We will start by drilling them open and removing the plastic. First, make pilot holes in these general locations marked in Blue:
Then, use a step bit to drill them out fully. Be careful around the edges of the electronics inside.
Then, take some pliers and break off the plastic gussets and leftover cylinders in the blue marked areas.
Now take the foil tape and start taping the entire interior of the cluster. This will add reflectivity so our lights will spread more evenly. Be sure to cover the few resistors that are exposed inside with Electrical tape, as the foil tape is conductive.
Here it is fully foiled:
|I then prepared the LED strips to fill in the gaps where the stock 4 bulb locations can't quite reach. I cut the 5050 Strip into 3 sections each with 3 LEDs. The strip is built to be cut, you will see where they can be cut and then soldered together. I placed electrical tape under the LEDs so the wires wouldn't arc across the foil tape. I also chose to remove the normal double sided tape from the strip and use Super Glue instead, as the normal tape degrades fairly easy on cheap LED strips.
I wired my 3 lengths together in parallel, then brought the tail of the wire through an unpopulated hole on the right side, where I then screwed it into the factory Illumn circuit.
Then, I replaced the 4 stock bulbs with the T10 LEDs and tested it all at once.
With face laid loosely on top:
Now we move our attention to the down lights. You will need the T5 Leds for this. Please note that unlike incandescents, the LEDs are all polarity sensitive. If it doesn't work when you put it in, flip it around!
Add 2 small squares of foil tape under the bulb seats. Do not foil the whole thing, and do not foil the vertical piece on the front. This will cause glare in the lens that is pretty noticeable.
|While you are here, it would be a good idea to polish up the lens. I used Meguiars Plast-X, which is built for clear plastic, it works wonders.
Now, just assemble and enjoy your bright, evenly-lit Tach Cluster! It even retains the ability to be dimmed using the factory dimmer switch!
you know its quality when it takes a while to load lol....
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