Instument illumination control

[tvrgeek]

If anyone is curious, I happen to have three removed from various cars. They seem to be about 5 Ohms. All three were burned open where the element attaches to the contact. I suspect this failure to be most probably if there was a short. Anyway, Smiths gauges are barely visible so I suspect most have bypassed it anyway.

Just a data point.

[dasadrew]

Yes. Mine worked and you could adjust the brightness from "visible with NVG" right down to "invisible"

[Alacrity]

I bought a green LED bulb kit + his dimmer for mine (not fitted yet as the car is mid resto) from Gil @ Better Car Lighting (see link). You can wire the dimmer to dim by turning either left or right depending on preference. I like his stuff - not cheap but good & he is very helpful if needed.

[tvrgeek]

Thanks for the link. As I put my electricals together, I will be converting just about everything to LED. Not keeping all the original socket types in all the places. My gauges have green caps in them, but the 2.2W bulb is to dim. I want about twice that much lumens. Green LEDs should be the trick.

[Phil S]

speak to gil at better car lighting, if keeping the green caps in you may need white led's. I have gone with blue so have removed the caps with long nose pliers