Instrument Panel LEDs

[koa's93ranger]

K. This first one is half of my test bulbs, half of the normal bulbs, just to give you an idea of the cool white look:


This is the final product. There is a hot spot on the 45 mpg mark- that's due to the way the bulb is surrounded by plastic. I'm going to eventually pull it apart and cut off the plastic so the light disperses more evenly.


The only stuff I cleaned off (with nail polish remover) was the green where white is now. I didn't remove it from the red lines nor the blue KPH/RPM sections. I had a test cluster which didn't work and I compared removing the red/blue and decided I liked it better with it still on.

what id like to know is how the hell you have a 93 ranger with only 43000 miles hahaha. i thought i had low miles with only 73000

 

[irishblessing]

thats 143xxx im sure
73xxx how the hell do you have 73xxx i have 158xxx on a 96

 

[koa's93ranger]

thats 143xxx im sure
73xxx how the hell do you have 73xxx i have 158xxx on a 96

haha my '03 had 118000

i just got lucky. after rolling my '03, i came across a '93 with 73000. so i took it immediately while it was still available

after further looking into the truck and the details. it seems that it was a previous forestry service vehicle. so it wasnt driven very much, mostly parked at a lookout or ranger station im sure. and i know they have to legally service the truck every so often, so i know it was taken care of and was up to date on its service inspections.

 

[irishblessing]

thats freakin cool man i know exactly where mine has been previous owner was my grandmather and i used to ride in the jumpseats when i was younger so ive pretty much had the truck my whole life all the work done to it is documented and mostly highway miles so its in good shape i love my truck
but thats a steal man lucky you

 

[koa's93ranger]

haha thats awesome. its gotta feel good to take a truck that youve rode in your entire life and turn it into something different with your own touch. which i could do that. all the trucks weve had from when i was a kid are in hawaii, probably rusted to hell in someones backyard haha

 

[irishblessing]

yeah ill have that truck the rest of my life well hey at least you got to live in hawaii lol

 

[jmsmith76]

ordered my LED's yesterday, gonna put them in this weekend or sometime next week over my spring break!

 

[Syko]

Just got my LED's today.. heres a cuple pics.. gonna do the Instrument Panel once it stops raining....
Temp has no light in it..

 

[nitrofan1]

Lookin good! Thinkin bout some Ford Motorsport gauges to add for myself!

 

[Mtrhd0024]

The reason people complain that the LED's don't dim as well as the bulbs is because essentially LED's are ON or OFF. The bulb dimmer is essentially a variable resistor which, as the resistance increases, the bulb brightness decreases. An LED does not require much voltage to light up, so as long as the voltage is at or above the requirement for the LED it will light up.

A proper LED dimmer will pulse the LED quickly on and off. The more pulses there are, the "brighter" the LED will appear to the human eye. The fewer the pulses, the "dimmer" the LED will appear to the human eye. The pulses are too quick to detect with the human eye so it will seem like one continuous beam. Since the original dimmer in the truck is a variable resistor, it will not dim the LED properly because it doesn't "pulse" the LED's.

You could create a dimmer for these LED's that would dim it more noticeable by pulsing them, however this would require more complex circuitry such as a microchip, as well as some basic programming. Not THAT difficult, but beyond the means of most DIY'ers, and you need a few specialty parts that you wouldn't have lying around the house.

Also, is there any way, or has anyone tried putting a red LED near the needle so it illuminates red while the rest of the gauge numbers, etc are blue? I'm not sure if there is a separate LED/bulb for the needles or not so I'm just wondering.

thats freakin cool man i know exactly where mine has been previous owner was my grandmather and i used to ride in the jumpseats when i was younger so ive pretty much had the truck my whole life all the work done to it is documented and mostly highway miles so its in good shape i love my truck
but thats a steal man lucky you

This is a lot like me man, my Grandpa bought my 1990 Bronco II in 1991, and gave it to me there last year. I was born in 90' so its pretty much like I've had it my whole life. Learned to drive with in it as well, so I love this thing! He's got a little book the the glovebox, and he's recorded everything: every gas stop, the mileage after every drive, every oil change and part replacement; its all down in that book, so its really sweet knowing where its been!

 

[nitrofan1]

Not that I've seen. The regular 194's emit standard light that allows the green film to show plus the needles to show red. LED's I think use a different spectrum of light maybe? Cause what color LED you use that's the color gauges you get. If anyone has a better answer please let us all know.

 

[locovaca]

There are 5 bulbs, all for the gauges and needles. The gauges have a plastic diffuser which "gathers" light and dumps it off behind the needle, which is what lights up the needle.

If you want red needles with blue numbers, you will have to go with 7000k or so white LEDs and either go with the stock blue paint or repaint to the blue you want, and paint the needles red. Otherwise you're looking at putting in extra LEDs and soldering the connections in manually. Stock incandescent bulbs emit light around 3000k which is yellowish, which is why you get green gauges with regular bulbs and blue gauges with 7000k ("hyper-white"). If you look hard enough you can find white LEDs closer to the standard 3000k temp.

 

[Mtrhd0024]

There are 5 bulbs, all for the gauges and needles. The gauges have a plastic diffuser which "gathers" light and dumps it off behind the needle, which is what lights up the needle.

If you want red needles with blue numbers, you will have to go with 7000k or so white LEDs and either go with the stock blue paint or repaint to the blue you want, and paint the needles red. Otherwise you're looking at putting in extra LEDs and soldering the connections in manually. Stock incandescent bulbs emit light around 3000k which is yellowish, which is why you get green gauges with regular bulbs and blue gauges with 7000k ("hyper-white"). If you look hard enough you can find white LEDs closer to the standard 3000k temp.

Ok thanks, I knew you'd need a different color LED if you wanted red needles, I just wasn't sure if the needle had its own LED and if the design of the gauges would allow you to install a different color LED without causing you to have half red, half blue gauges or something silly like that. It sounds like from what people are saying that there are only a few LED's in the cluster which dump light on the whole thing simultaniously, so there's no easy way to get blue gauges and red needles without some custom fab work.

 

[nitrofan1]

The needle will still be darker than the numbers yet still lit. It will be a reddish-purple color. It takes a few nights to get used to it but the advantage is your eyes won't get tired from the color of the gauges!

 

[The Jester Race]

When ordering from superbrightleds.com is that price per bulb, or per pack? If its per pack how many bulbs come in a pack?

-Jester