WTB/ Look what I screwed up today...

[camron at worldaccessnet.com (Camron D. Crouse)]

Bryan Rankin wrote:

>
> Well, on another quest today, putting in blue led's for my dimly lit 
> instrument cluster...easy job right?  



I have also recently done the "blue LED" trick  My original results were 
not satisfactory; I had very dim illumination (except at the very top of 
the guages), and the digital clock wouldn't light up at all.  Using 
Patrick ATS's tech notes as a giude ( 
http://ats.longcoeur.com/Index2.html ), I removed instrument cluster 
again, took apart the back, removed green diffusion filters and replaced 
with nice white transluscent drafting mylar (plastic vellum).  Since the 
LEDs I got ( www.superbrightleds.com ) emitted a beam that was quite 
directional, but the instrument cluster required diffuse illumination, I 
had to get creative to maximize the light output to the guages:
    - painted the inside of the upper light chamber bright silver to 
bounce as much light as possible down to the mylar diffuser.
    - assembled a cheesy little foil "box" behind the digital clock to 
redirect the light to the transparent light guide (clear plastic prizm-y 
thing) so that the clock could be illuminated as designed.

Original OSRAM bulbs emit light in an omnidirectional fashion, but these 
LEDs emit light only from the tip, in the direction they are aimed.  The 
instrument cluster was not designed to utilize this directional light, 
so I had to go and try something funky to get decent results.  It looks 
way better now, though is not as easy to read as the stock lights were.  
But I love the pureness of the LED emission wavelength... not to mention 
LEDs' long life.  Some white face guages would be helpful in this 
regard, I believe... perhaps I will add to my list of to-do's.

BTW, where did you get your instrument cluster LEDs?  Mine are an 
"approximation" of the OSRAM connector which don't really fit perfectly, 
but yours look like the original style connector, and I'd like to 
consider a better fit.

Oh, yeah, you do know that LEDs install only one way, right?  If the 
polarity is reversed, they will not illuminate until you rotate the bulb 
180*...HTH

- Camron from Vancouver, WA USA
   '86.5 Black 16V 2.0L