Are these LED lights worth a darn for replacement bulbs on a 76 dash?

Thanks

http://www.ebay.com/itm/10-pc-Bright-White-T10-LED-Dashboard-Cluster-Speedometer-Indicator-Light-bulb-/121313628538?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&fits=Year%3A1976%7CModel%3ACorvette&hash=item1c3edb117a&vxp=mtr

 

Maybe I'm a dumb-a$$, but I can't see where these LED's match the round brass socket design of the original incadescent bulb used in our C3's?

 

Well see, now you're just being all logical and ****

I just love these auctions that say in parenthesis that (will fit 1976 corvette), when it's a door lock or something that will in now way fit a corvette

 

 

First you got to get a list of the regular lightbulb, they have codes like 1445,1156....
Then you'll have to find the equilavent "new" terminology :
1445 -> BA9S
1156 -> BA15S
Usually if you search for the older term on ebay (ie: "1156 led") you get in the item description list the other equivalent terminology.

I personnally bought from ebay (1$ a piece in average) and rebuilt them into the older housings.
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c3-g...post1585541314
The housing of ebay lightbults is just pressed metal, it won't fit tight enough in the hardness connector, the two protruding thingy at the botton just don't protrude enough.
I don't see a reason for buy led from and american led store, you'll just buy the same stuff at x10 the price. All led are produced in China anyway.

 

I just considered doing led lights on my 76 dash, but went with standard bulbs instead. If you go led, remember that the backs of your gauges are painted blue.....the theory of yellow light reflecting off blue give you the green illumination that your dash has now. I decided to stick with old fashioned lights......they are 1895 bulbs, and if you decide to stick with them make sure you get the ones with brass/copper bases, the silver/tin ones will give you problems, trust me on this!!!!!!

I don't know if you have your dash apart already, but are you aware of how much work is involved to replace the lights?? Mine was already apart so I just did the little extra work while I was there already, but to do it from scratch just to go to led might not be worth your time and patience (and possible damage to your interior).

 

Perfect example, what moron thinks this will fit a 76 Corvette?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-GM-INTERIOR-DOOR-LOCK-*****-SHOW-QUALITY-FITS-CAMARO-CHEVELLE-SS-NOVA-442-/310922881119?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&fits=Year%3A1976%7CModel%3ACorvette&hash=item486472a85f&vxp=mtr

 

Thanks Denpo, was hoping for an easy switch but sounds too complicated for this wiring moron

Yeah I believe I will stick with the tried and true stock bulb...

 

Interesting, I was going to ask if anyone had experience with these, they are supposed to be dimmable
http://www.ebay.com/itm/271199155695?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

 

Those look like the ones Denpo got and had to rebuild to get to fit properly. I'd like to have LED's in for the fact they use less power and their light seems to be a bit cleaner (if that makes sense), plus they don't admit heat the way incandescent bulbs do.

 

None of the LED sold on Ebay are dimmable in the way you think.
You need a special kind of dimmer (PWM dimming)
Same thing than trying to control a ceiling fan with a light bulb dimmer, doesn't work.

With the stock rheostat-based dimmer, this will kind of work, the led will get a bit less bright, but will change color, and then will shut off halfway into the dimming.
Most commercial LED dimmer won't work with a stock harness, because they need to be put between the led and the ground (low side dimming), opposed to the stock dimmer which is between the 12v source and the led (high side dimming).

I'm actually procrastinating on a electronic device I'm designing, that would allow the most painless led dimmer installation.
It will read the status of the stock dimmer and will translate that into high side PWM dimming for the whole dashboard harness.
Those interested will have to keep an eye on my main restoration thread

 

I actually ran into some more problems with the LED. The corvette harness have been built with lightbulb in mind.
Consider the front side marker, they are operated by both the turn signal power AND the low beam signal. The side marker bulb has both of its terminal connected to a 12v source!!
How it work?
When it's the turn signal that powers the marker bulb, the low beam lightbulb act as a ground.
When it's the lowbeam signal that powers the marker bulb, it's the dashboark turn indicator bulb that acts like a ground.
Pretty tricky, those circuit work in both direction!
It's all good with regular lightbulbs, they need lot of power to actually lit.

So, when you're in low or high beam mode, the turn signal indicator receive the residual current from the marker, they lit up a little, and it's taken as some gauge backlight bleeding, but it's not.
In the gauges, the turn signal are completely isolated from the backlight and should remain pitch dark if there wasn't this bleeding by design).

When you use LED, the residual current is more than sufficient to light up entirely the dashboard turn indicator.
Took me a full week to understand I did not make any mistake in the wiring.
The only remedy is to have a marker that use two bulb (or a two "filament" bulb), each one having a proper ground and powered by one of the two 12v source.
Hope it make sense.

 

Hey bud,
Here's what another forum member did recently.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c3-g...eedometer.html

Terry

 

Being a wiring moron I kinda understand that but will just take your word that LED's just wont work without a lot of extra work and parts. Thanks for the explanation

 

Am I misunderstanding something here? Are you looking to replace gauge lights or accessory lights? I just replaced all the gauge lights(speedo, gas, oil etc) with leds. Correct you can no longer dim your lights. The are polarity sensitive meaning they will only light if put in correct. If they don't, flip them around. I used blue. ANd leave regular bulbs in for turn signals

 

Yes I wanted them to replace gauge lights, I do want the capability to dim them though but don't want to go through the complicated (well for me it would be complicated), wiring in of a special controller.

 

The stock potentiometer (the variable resistor wire wound component) in the head light switch is marginal. Using it to dim and adjust brightness of console lighting will cause it to often burn out. To reduce current flow through this component, I installed LED's in the vertical center counsel,...the fuel, temp, battery, etc gauges and LED's in the center **** counsel. This will very much reduce current flow through the head light switch. I left incandescent bulbs in the speedo and tach housing. This means I can dim these light bulbs, It also provides some dimming to the LEDs. My headlight potentiometer switch will not be overstressed.