What type of bulbs are in the ignition halo, the low fuel light, 4wd light, abs, brake, water in fuel, wait to start and the backlighting in the heater control?
Are they all just standard 194? And can I use LEDs in them?
What about the cargo/interior light? and same question with the LEDs for them too.

I'm going to do the guage cluster makeover as per Jim Lane's thread and wouldn't mind just doing the whole shabang

 

Sounds good but be aware that the WIF light may be an active part of the analog circuit. Altering the VR curve may affect the point at which the indicator lights. Plain old bulbs for illumination are fine for changing out.

Incandescent filaments have a slight inverse knee in the curve but beyond that they act pretty much like a resistor. Led's are diodes that just happen to emit light. Their forward knee is very low out to a volt or so then shoots up after the band gap is passed. In the reverse direction they don't conduct well until their reverse knee is reached then they avalanch there as well and unless current is controlled in both directions they will self destruct. Hence the resistor.

Edwin

 

Uhhhh... Is there anyway to put that into laymens terms?

There are many bulbs behind the dash over 20 IIRC for a variety of things, some are 194, 158 and 161. And there are others I don't recall.

Cargo lamp 211-2
Dome lamp- 211-2 or 1004

 

Sorry about that. Just don't replace a bulb with an LED in any circuit that depends on the resistance characteristics of the bulb.

Edwin

 

There's backlighting in the heater control? I must have a bulb out. I always thought that didn't make any sense, but I haven't had a light there since I've had the truck. How do you get to it?

 

LEDs will go in everything. The Halo I dont know, however, mine never worked. I did replace EVERY bulb in the cluster and info center to LED, clear for the dummys and used blue for the cluster backlighting. The only thing that wont happen is you can not dim them though.

The HVAC center takes a single 194 on the back side, it was easy to replace, however I had the dash apart too. Sorry I cant give you any more info then that!

 

Since I can hardly see the guages in the dark the tradeoff of not dimming them seems just fine to me... On the other hand, some guys have said they can still dim their LEDs in the guage cluster?

I take it replacing all to LEDs didn't lead to problems with anything right?

What I find most annoying is some of my bulbs like to only work intermittently. Namely the HVAC light and the stereo backlight. Kind of annoying and now my 4wd light doesn't work. It worked up until a week ago and then only worked when it wanted to for a couple days and now not at all. I'm hoping it's just a burnt out bulb.

 

To dim LED's all you need to do is wire in a inline potentiometer. Get a LED dimmer (aka potentiometer) at radio shack.

You can get them off Genos garage

LINK- http://www.genosgarage.com/prodinfo.asp?number=AM-9114

 

All the dash lights you mentioned except the halo and the 4wd indicator are 194's. 4wd light is a 158, halo is a 537.

Cargo is a 922, dome is a 1004.

 

Whats the map light bulb?

 

It's a 562.

 

4wd light is definitely a 194. I replaced the low fuel light with a 24NA. It didn't seem to be quite the same as the one I removed but whatever I couldn't find the actual right one. I replaced both of them today. I'm having a heck of a time finding the right 194 sockets... all 12 in my cluster are the ones with built in lights... so dumb, the replacement built-in bulb/socket is like$1.25 or something. Just the socket is $4.99... that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard... On top of that, I can't find the right 194 sockets for our trucks anywhere... it's getting a little frustrating.

 

LEDS wont work in the message center, they will in the dash for illumination.

 

would anyone be able to give a guess why my belt light stays on no matter what? I put the belt on, it stayed on. I unplugged the belt wiring and it still stayed on. I ended up just pulling the bulb, things were getting kind of hot

Also, what's the open gate light for? the tail gate? and if so I guess I don't have wiring for that.

 

I think that lamp was only in use in Ramchargers.