general ike

Keith sorry I don’t remember to be honest. I did go thru the console and replaced the old bulbs with LEDs though. The old bulbs do not give off much light and the sockets are not that reliable.

I will I’ll check tomorrow and report back. Ike

Hig116

Thanks Ike. Do you recall what bulbs (LED) you used and are you happy with how bright they are? I'm considering LED bulbs, but want to make sure they are not too bright.

Haggishash - I have a '72.

Thanks,
Keith

general ike

Keith, there is definitely a bulb projecting light from the shift indicator, so I must have found a bad bulb and replaced it. The reason I say that it is projecting light is that I changed out the bulb on the heating switch as well, but so little light comes thru I cannot even tell that it is on. If I remember it was obvious so if you are not seeing anything it might be missing.

Do you see a place for it in the shifter housing?Any cut wires? I again looked thru the AIM manual but I cannot find any reference to a bulb for it.

With regard to the LEDs I bought cheap ones on EBAY. suggest you do not, here is why, the PO had changed out the lights on the center gauge cluster to LEDs and they dim nicely to control the light output, mine don't. They slightly dim and then shut off, the others dim gradually, mine are annoying, but To be honest I like them full power and they are not overly bright

The other thought, and this is a personal taste, to match the POs LEDs i went with "white", which cast a blue colored hue. I don't like that, not very original looking. If I go back in I would go with yellow which give a more normal color to them. I know for home use bulbs are listed with a "kelvin" range I think that gives you various outputs so you can use that as a reference.

Good luck, post some pics of what you found. Ike

Hig116

Thanks Ike. I am restoring my console and while disassembling I notices what looked like a bulb housing by the shift indicator, but nothing plugged into it. I briefly searched for a wire/bulb, but didn't see anything. Before spending any more time searching I thought I would ask if there was supposed to be one there. Now that it has been verified, I'll see if it might have fallen out and is hiding from me.

I like your advice on the LEDs with using yellow and finding a bulb that is dimmable. I seem to remember seeing some "kits" for all of the interior bulbs. I'll see what I can find.

Thanks again,
Keith

general ike

Keith search the forum. There are definite posts discussing the various LED bulb options. The price for these are all of the place. EBay's are dirt cheap, they work but have obvious limitations. God luck Ike

oldgto

I was really considering LED bulbs, until I read some of the comments in a couple threads. A few complaints were that some of the bulbs were loose & didn`t quite fit, and would flicker on & off as you hit bumps in the road, and that some were polarity sensitive, and would only work if plugged in a certain way? As for an indicator on my automatic... I think I can find my gears without one. After all, I spent a lot of years finding the gears with this one in the dark, with no indicators....

Mooser

I went all LED last time the interior was out, got them from superbrightLED, (probably from the same factory in China as the cheap ones on ebay)
No real issues with fit of function



Working on something totally different this year anyway


M

general ike

Oldgto the loose bulbs is probably the old sockets. I think GM went with the lowest bidder!!! They are cheaply made and after many years they don't hold the bulbs well. But some tweaking usually solves that. Yes it smart to check polarity before reassembling. otherwise you may need to go back in. Ike