I am trying to find the factory gauge bulb style because I want to replace them with LED lights. I'm getting old and need brighter lights!

 

id go with superbrightleds.com and depends on what year your truck if it a one piece buld like my old one had they sell them and if its a removable bulb from the holder its just a 194 bulb

 

The 194 replacements LEDs from SUPERBRIGHT LEDs work great.

http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-b...ini-wedge.html

I used the WLED-xHP6 for all my dash lights. Both the illumination bulbs and the gauge lights themselves.

 

Hmmm. I can't find your exact light in there "WLED-xHP6".

 

I found them. No clearance issues? How many did it take to do everything?

 

Mark, there is a writeup in the sticky, Jim Lane IIRC. I did mine and they are 50 times brighter. The only thing is that I did my blinker and hibeam indicator too bright. The good news is that I NEVER forget to turn them off Mark

 

I took out the bluer reflectors that were in there in stock form and never had clearance issues. IIRC there were 6 illumination bulbs , 5 gauge bulbs and 6 dummy indicator lights.

While I had the cluster apart, I also repainted the needles and coated the inside of the housing with chrome spray paint to reflect the light better. Kinda like Jim Lane's write-up where he used the shiny foil tape.

https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...2&postcount=15

 

Funny, I was just into the guages on the ol' flatbed, replacing the speedo, re-bulbing, things of that nature.
Once I was done I turned on the parklamps and everything shined nice, but I noticed that the cluster lighting seemed dimmer towards the top, then I looked and there are NO bulbs actually situated to shine at the top.
First time I ever actually looked into it and it's no wonder people complain they can't see the guages, they really are poorly lit!

Mine are dfinitely brighter than they were, but that was because there was so much dust on the bulbs and inside the housing was coated BROWN.
Brown doesn't reflect much light.

Mark.

 

I want to do this. I also need to find and LED that will fit my ISSPRO pyrometer. I need to repaint the needle on that dude also.

 

The service manual shows a socket up there but marks it "not used". It might be possible to drill out the board and put a buld up at the top.
I suspect (like Apollo 13) the PCB was over amperage when they had seven incandescent bulbs in there, so they had to get rid of one.. Since LED draw so much less current, wouldn't hut at all to add it back.

 

On my Banks Boost gauge, there was a lens in the mounting hole that wouldnt let the WLED-xHP6 fit. Careful inspection showed that the lens could be pried out to make room.

I haven't seen an ISSPRO one but perhaps the same could be done. Also if you dig around on the link I gave you there are several different configurations in different sizes. Some aren't much bigger than a standard 194.

Look at the WLED-xHP5

 

www.superbrightleds.com offers so many different LED replacement options (for the 194 incandescent bulb) it is difficult to choose.

Does beam angle matter? Bulbs are available with beam angles from 32 degrees to 360 degrees. I'm guessing it wouldn't make much difference for the blinkers and high beam indicator, but what about for the white bulbs in the gauges?

 

tia

 

Yes the beam angle does matter, as you can see you need the light to flood the inside of the instrument cluster so you want it to project light 360* as you can see in my instrument cluster.

The pilot indicators for the turn signal, High Beam and any other indicators you might have only need to project light forward



I would highly recommend that you also install the metallic foil to the inside of the housing to reflect and evenly disperse the light.



This is how bright my instrument panel was before with the stock #194 lamps.



Here is how bright my instrument panel is using the LED's I bought from www.superbrightleds.com



http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-b...ini-wedge.html



These are the ones I used in Cool White.

http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-b...hp6.htm#photos

Here is the link to my write up in the sticky.

https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...d.php?t=209884

Jim

 

Great write-up as usual Jim!