grantv

One of my little winter projects last winter was to perform the all too common dim display re-solder fix. Worked perfect, even though I somehow dropped the unit on the ground while repairing. Yes, I did. Finished the re-solder, plugged it in, great; the dim display ain't dim.
Didn't notice until I started driving the car that all the back lighting stopped working.
Forward to this winter (I don't drive much in the dark so let it go for the year), pulled out the unit and ran a jumper from a good 9V battery to a couple different bulbs (I understand they're in series, still did...); nothing.
Is it really possible that every bulb somehow burst when it dropped, but nothing else went wrong? Are those particular bulbs that touchy? Any other possibilities or thoughts?

Ed Ramberger

Yes - the OE bulbs are not that great. You can actually lose bulbs just when working on it and the unit is taken apart and lightly jarred. Send the unit to Travis at VetteTronics - he uses the correct resistance but better bulbs. Too many people on the forums tell others to use the incorrect bulbs (fit but no concern for much lower resistance - result is pulling higher current, hot buttons, melted buttons). I measured resistance of my last couple of good bulbs on the board and they were much higher than the replacements so many others use.

When I did my display, I actually lost a few bulbs, then lost more as I checked and rechecked. It's just old, cheap filaments.