Hi everyone. A buddy of mine has a 1950 ford car that he is trying to get better dash lights. I have not looked at the car yet but he called me asking some questions on it. So far what I know is the car has been converted to 12v. Everything seems to be working good except the dash lights. He says the lights are dim and he can barely see them at night. He has replaced them with new 12v bulbs but they are still dim. Anyone have any suggestions to a cause or remedy? I'm thinking he needs to change out the headlight switch to a 12v one but not sure if that is the problem as I have not seen the car yet. I would think someone else has maybe had this problem before on a 12v converted car. Thanks for any help.
If the dash lights ground thru the instrument cluster, make sure that the cluster itself has a good clean ground path. You could rig up a test lead to make a temporary ground to see if that helps. Also, if you can find the specific lead from the headlamp switch that powers the dash lamps, check it to make sure you actually have at least 12 volts going to the cluster lamps. The rheostat in the headlamp switch may be wonky.
Sometime the simplest things can be overlooked. Has he tried turning the headlight switch to the left or right? This should brighten the dash lights. HRP
Shoebox Ford dash lights have been the subject of several threads. You might try searching for them The reason they are difficult to 'fix' is because they have radium (or some such) letters and numerals that, when new, "glowed" when stimulated by light. With age that becomes less effective. The dash lights are very indirect and I believe have quite dark filters around the bulbs. 24 volt lamps wouldn't help because that is not the problem. All this is from memory, and minor details may be in error, but the principle point I am making is correct. You will need change your approach in correcting the problem. Again, please search for pertinent threads on this topic. Ray
The 49 ford that I had,had the same problem, and you can find several threads I think to solve it but what I did was to dis***emble the cluster and take the blue/purple gl*** bulb surrounds out and just let the instrument lights run without that diffuser, then I had plenty of light Sent from my iPad using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
AND Tom Edison would be horrified as there are led equivalent gauge illumination bulbs now. They are not a slam-dunk as while they do emit gobs of light, it may not be in the direction or color to provide contrasty light on the gauge face. So you need to research for side emitting vs end emitting etc. You also need to make certain they fit into the usually shallow gauge recess. And color temperature varies...closest to sunlight or yellow tinge makes for best readable rather than intense high frequency blue. See SuperBrightLEDs.com has 6v versions as well as 12v led blubs. Which is to say, conversion to gauge leds can become a hobby in itself. I just wish there was an inexpensive source of samples. Incidentally, for my last car where I did led research, I bought a spare speedometer ($100) just to experiment on. Bottom line I stayed with original tungsten bulbs as the emitted light angle couldn't be adequately duplicated in available (at that time) leds. The fix for brighter gauges for me turned out to be byp***ing the dimmer reostat which had enough voltage drop at full bright rotation to be irritating.
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