RacerX

Ok, so last night I pulled the instrument panel out of my 1993 Suburban, because I wanted to replace the stock clear lens #194 bulbs with some red LED #194s. In this IC there are 5 #168/194 style bulbs and about 10 minibulbs whose number I cant tell you BUT they are smaller than the 168/194s. This is the IC with the speedo in the middle, the oil and water to the left and the fuel and battery to the right, I know there are at least 3 different clusters they used in the early models. The bulbs go in behind the panel and they backlight the what show up as green numbers and hash-lines.

So anyway, the bulbs appear to be soldered to the contacts in the socket so I have to use a pick to scratch the leads off and then open up the folded contacts on the bulb and bend them over the contacts on the outside of the socket. Then I get them in, no problem. Since I had to take the grey trim piece off to get to the IC and I had half a can of black spray paint left...why not? I pop out the vent and the little accessories add-on covers unscrew the headlight switch and lay it in the street and lace it with the cheap Home Depot 99cent black spray paint. I let it lay in the hallway overnight to dry.

This morning it looked real good. Put the vent back in, the headlight switch and add-on covers(I didnt paint them, so they are still grey, but it is a good contrast). Well, I had to wait til night to see how the IC look with the red LED 194 bulbs. And now I found out. I no like. The needles look good but there is no way to read the numbers. All you really see is the needle and the red danger area on each respective gauge(ie. the low fuel level or high temperature part). On the fuel gauge and battery gauge, the needle is good enough, but for oil pressure, speed and water I d like to know where I stand(especially speed). I replaced the Temper. Sending unit for the dash back when I got the truck so its a new sensor. But I m disappointed. I thought the dash would be bright red with the numbers being red also, that why I went with LEDs instead of filamented bulbs. Shoot!

And in a related note, I did the same thing in my G20. But I used blue filamented bulbs in that IC. The bulbs in the G Van dont backlight the cluster they light from the side, which is a little more subtle. The prognosis there is that the blue is more subdued than the clear bulbs but they arent the deep blue that I thought it would be. So I ordered some blue LEDs but if they are like the red ones, I dont know...

Now my Cadillac has illumination in the IC like the G20 where the clear bulbs light from the sides of the assembly. I ll have to wait until spring to try that because you need to pull the top of the dash panel off to get to the IP, which requires unscrewing everything behind the vents from left to right. More of an issue in the Cad is that I dont have heat(and aint had it since I got the car in 2006). Damn programmer is expensive and a junk yard part is most likely that. Funny though, when I was in DR last month there was a guy there who had a shop and said he could fix any circuit board and there I am without the programmer. Damn!!