installed LED dash lights and "Rocketman's" converted AMP gauge today.

[Kit Sullivan]

I installed all new green LED dash lights in my mach today. They look fantastic! Closest thing to the original green hue they came with from the factory. I have had the blue "diffuser cups" out of mine for 25 years now, with just bare 168 bulbs in there. It makes the gauges clearly visible but that harsh white light always bugged me. These new green LEDs look so good I can't wait to go out driving at night just to see them "in action"!

I also installed "Rocketman's" converted AMP gauge while I had the center-stack out. It now reads volts instead of AMPs, and removes the possibilty of a potential fire from the factory's ill-advised original wiring scheme.

It looks completely stock, and it works like a champ! It's great to see that gauge working again! I recommend this conversion to every single person with the stock set-up...it works well, is easy to install and gives a greater margin of safety over the dangerous original design. "Rocketman" does good work and has great prices.

Even though I'm close to geezer-dom at 55, and life in general has beat me down like it tends to do...I still find myself excited and acting like a dorky 7 year old kid on Christmas morning whenever I complete a new project on my Mustang.

I called my wife to the garage to see results of my handiwork: new, softly-glowing green dash lights and a working AMP gauge.

She stared at me for a moment...then said " this is what you've been doing for eight hours?"

She doesn't get it. I don't care...I get it.

I know a few if you get it too.

 

[mdan575]

Little things like that really do kick ass when they turn out so well. Best part is any normal person would never notice. We on the other hand can tell the difference instantly from the old classic dim bulbs that burn out to easily and far to often.

 

[Scotty]

I installed all new green LED dash lights in my mach today. They look fantastic! Closest thing to the original green hue they came with from the factory. I have had the blue "diffuser cups" out of mine for 25 years now, with just bare 168 bulbs in there. It makes the gauges clearly visible but that harsh white light always bugged me. These new green LEDs look so good I can't wait to go out driving at night just to see them "in action"!

I also installed "Rocketman's" converted AMP gauge while I had the center-stack out. It now reads volts instead of AMPs, and removes the possibilty of a potential fire from the factory's ill-advised original wiring scheme.

It looks completely stock, and it works like a champ! It's great to see that gauge working again! I recommend this conversion to every single person with the stock set-up...it works well, is easy to install and gives a greater margin of safety over the dangerous original design. "Rocketman" does good work and has great prices.

Even though I'm close to geezer-dom at 55, and life in general has beat me down like it tends to do...I still find myself excited and acting like a dorky 7 year old kid on Christmas morning whenever I complete a new project on my Mustang.

I called my wife to the garage to see results of my handiwork: new, softly-glowing green dash lights and a working AMP gauge.

She stared at me for a moment...then said " this is what you've been doing for eight hours?"

She doesn't get it. I don't care...I get it.

I know a few if you get it too.

Hey all sounds good and I really get the dorky 7 year old kid and the wife. About to turn 50, car just about done at the body shop so I feel ya!! Hey where did you get the lights and do tell how they look once the night time road test is done. My are the old green dim vintage and this is an upgrade I am also looking to make. Cheers.

 

[sequel88]

Sounds like upgrade I should make too. The only gauge I can see at night is my tach.

 

[Mikes73]

Make sure to test for bulb polarity using a 9 volt battery with lead wires before you install them in to the instrument cluster so there are no suprises when you get everything back together. LED's are an excellent upgrade.

 

[Kit Sullivan]

The bulbs are marked pos/neg. You just have to make sure you install them with positive contacts oriented correctly. No big deal...they all worked perfectly first time I pulled the switch.

 

[caspianwendell]

Hey women have they're "look what I did" moments too, like "I organized the pantry in alphabetical order"...:dodgy:...You know a pic of the dash after dark is in order here?

 

[jbojo]

The bulbs are marked pos/neg. You just have to make sure you install them with positive contacts oriented correctly. No big deal...they all worked perfectly first time I pulled the switch.

Who's the supplier for these LED's? Also do you have to change the voltage regulator or anything else?

thx

 

[MechEng]

Voltage regulator doesn't do anything for your dash lights. It supplies the 5v needed for the gauges themselves. All voltage for the dash lights comes through the headlight switch. You don't have to change anything else, they're a plug and play instillation, just be mindful of polarity as already stated

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jbojo]

Voltage regulator doesn't do anything for your dash lights. It supplies the 5v needed for the gauges themselves. All voltage for the dash lights comes through the headlight switch. You don't have to change anything else, they're a plug and play instillation, just be mindful of polarity as already stated

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thx, so who is a good source for these?

 

[Kit Sullivan]

I got the LEDs from "Hi-Po Parts".

They sell individual bulbs, and complete packages for 71-73 Mustangs which include an assortment of differently-colored bulbs for the appropriate function.

What is nice is that they will custom-fill your particular order to give you a set of bulbs to fill what your particular needs are.

There are several situations to consider on these old cars:

The original dash clusters had translucent blue diffuser "cups" covering each bulb. The yellowish light from those old-style 168 bulbs passing thru the blue diffusers resulted in a soft green ( with a hint of blue) glow on the gauge faces.

I think that original color was beautiful...definitely a "70s" look to it.

The problem with that set-up are many, though.

First, the bulbs start to lose brightess as soon as you use them, and they continue to dim over thier lifespan. 5 years for bulb life for a daily-driver was about average...10 years was stretching it.

The bulbs do throw off some heat, and over the years it has a detrimental effect on several things. The blue diffusers tend to get dry and fogged over, dramatically lowering the amount of light that gets thru them. In addition the heat from the bulbs tends to cause the originally flat-white reflective areas inside the dash clusters to get a brownish surface on them. Combine all this with the ever-dimming incandescent bulbs and you end up with barely-legible gauges, even if all the bulbs are still working.

25 or so years ago, with well over 250,000 miles already on my car and dim,uselss gauges for night-time driving, I decided to do something about it.

I took the clusters apart and removed and shit-canned all the worthless dried-up and hazed-over diffuser cups.

I cleaned and repainted the inside of the cluster cases back to a clean and pristine flat-white.

I installed all new 168 bulbs, shining into the clusters with no hazed-over diffusers to block the light.

It all looked great, and I was stoked to be able to clearly see my gauges again! However, with no colored diffusers, it was just bright, harsh white light shinig thru...legible but kind of industrial looking. None of that beautiful, stylish soft greenish glow from lo those many years ago...

Remember, there were no LED bulbs of any kind for this application, and no aftermarker repro blue diffuser cups to be had for our models way back then, so I think this was my only choice at the time. Today, there are still no repro blue diffusers for the 71-73s, so we have to make other choices.

If your particular blue diffusers are still in decent condition, they can be rejuvinated with some good plastic polish. Installing a correctly-colored white LED behind that cup will give you a near perfect reproduction of the original color.

If however, your diffusers are toast, or are just missing, then a differently-colored LED bulb is what you need.

Since mine are long gone, I went with green LEDs to give me as close-to-original color as possible. It might be a tad too greenish, but it looks fantastic nonetheless.

There are different types of LED bulbs also: front-firing, side-only firing, inverted, etc...

The green ones I used are called 5-SMD. Not sure exactly what that means, but it has four small LEDs around the sides, with one on top firing forward on each green bulb to throw light in all directions. Plus they are much brighter that lesser-quality LEDs.

The kits can be loaded with whatever assortment of bulbs you need for your particular application. The guy there called me on the phone and schooled me pretty good on the details and conditions of what I needed. Very informative.

I recommend it to anyone, even those with low-mileage original cars. The LEDs draw miniscule amounts of voltage compared to the old bulbs, and throw almost no heat so there is no degradation of orginal parts due to heat. And LEDs have a lifespan of many, many times a regular bulb...and they never dim: they shine at thier full brightness throughout thier life.

Do it...you'll love it!

 

[CZ-75]

So...What do you have to do to get access to the back of the clusters?

 

[jbojo]

Thx for the info Kit.

 

[Kit Sullivan]

Just put the cluster face down on a soft towel on a work table. You can leave the printed circuit in place if you are just inspecting it. If you are going to clean and repaint the inside, just carefully remove the voltage regulator from the back, then carefully remove the printed circuit.

Unscrew the case-back and remove. The gauges are attached to the inside of the case back. Carefully unscrew and remove them.

Clean and repaint the inside of the case back, and reassemble. It is very easy and straightforward.

This is the perfect time to replace the VR, printed circuit and bulb-holders if needed.

 

[JimNiki]

When I did mine, I also installed led clusters near the foot wells so when you open a door there is a nice blue hue glowing in the foot wells.

Something simple which I didn't think twice about but people who see it think whoah!

 

[midlife]

Good for you!

One bad point of upgrading the dash lamps: you'll not have the excuse of not being able to read the speedo when you get pulled over for speeding.

 

[Kit Sullivan]

Surprisingly, after owning this car for 44 years ( so far), as well as a 401-powered AMX, 2 Trans-Ams, a 455-powered 442, two Z-28s, 2 hopped-up Torinos, several other Mustangs, three Tbird Super Coupes, 3 Mk VII LSCs ( one a Roush- modified GTC) and dozens of other mundane vehicles...I have NEVER recieved a speeding ticket. A few warnings, however....

And I think faulty dash lights would be a reason to write you extra tickets, not give you a break?

 

[Mike429cj]

Surprisingly, after owning this car for 44 years ( so far), as well as a 401-powered AMX, 2 Trans-Ams, a 455-powered 442, two Z-28s, 2 hopped-up Torinos, several other Mustangs, three Tbird Super Coupes, 3 Mk VII LSCs ( one a Roush- modified GTC) and dozens of other mundane vehicles...I have NEVER recieved a speeding ticket. A few warnings, however....

And I think faulty dash lights would be a reason to write you extra tickets, not give you a break?

Kit, come back to Houston and I can arrange for you to have that experience! Just kidding, you are very lucky to have never experienced that.

Just checked out the LED kits from Hi Po Parts. Nice kit very straight forward and most of all plug and play without need for resisters. Something I can add to my car and nobody would know it is not stock. There went another $100 bill!

I know my wife will be just as excited as yours when she sees the final product. She can't wait.

 

[JimNiki]

Just never let the wife see the total cost! It could be solid grounds for divorce ... Or even worse ... Certify us!