I have a 89 cluster, so its not electronic faced like the 91~92, i'm curious on adding more led's and circling around the back of the facing of the blue bezel to make it brighter. I swapped over and did a red 5ledangle setup with all the sockets and its still pretty dim, i even trimmed some of the inner plastic to get it around some shots, i'm going to spray the blue size of the bezel chrome so it reflects better, but i'm wondering about adding parallel ledaround each circle, so it halo's it. Any ideas or suggestions? Also for the 12V supplying to our clusters what should I look for, in the mA for the led's.. I was actually planning on taking 1 of the light sockets out and running both ends of the wires supplying to the led's to where the power would be received on the terminal clip of the dash.. Just want some ideas before I jump into this.

 

I heard that spray painting the back of the outer gauge bezel white will reflect the light, projecting it onto the gauges better... but it's just something I've heard. Wanting to try it myself, but just need to get some white paint in a can.

 

I heard that also but considering the difference, i'm going chrome to give the "mirror" effect, so it directs more light, i don't mind the arrays being bounced, it still shows more, the white will just flood it more which everyone wants. We'll see. I still want more lighting, i don't see this to helping 190% for just painting it to make it better

 

Here's something I did years ago. The mods have helped considerably, though LEDs are probably the way to go these days.

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/body...r-cluster.html

JamesC

 

i did a white bezel and leds

 

Any pictures of it lit? I have some of the led's that turn on and some don't unless you wiggle the cluster a bit, i think its the plastic not making good contact, anyway to fix? Is white better or will chrome still work?

 

Sorry, no pics. However, with the high intensity 194's I used, the brightness is comparable to Cali's dash, I think.

You might try tightening the two 10 mm nuts that hold the cluster in place. Perhaps it's not secure enough to make good contact.

The chrome might reflect oddly. Dunno really.

JamesC

 

I have "WLED-x5 LED Wide Angle LED bulb" from superbrightleds.com. I'll do white and see how it goes.

The nuts you are talking about are in back of the gauge right? If so, i go rid of those because they are a pita to undo and take out... Would there be a better solution I could do to replace them?... Its hard getting a pivot in there to hold them then having to put them back in....

Should i just bend the metal contacts up a little? I kind of wish this cluster was one of those male and female connector types like the 91~92 and the 93~99?

 

The ones I'm talking about can be accessed from the front of the cluster. Remove the black plastic bezel. You can then see one post/nut on each side of the steering wheel. These two secure the entire cluster to the dash.

JamesC

 

Post #1, pic #3 of the thumbnails in the following link show the holes (third rectangle on each side of the column arch) where the two posts come through the cluster. You can even see the ring around the holes whee the nut was:

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/inte...er-1987-a.html

If those are the studs/nuts in question, I'd suggest that replacement might solve your problem.

JamesC

 

Weird.. Mine came with a bolt through it and someone had a nut in back of it holding it together.. I just took it out.. So theres suppose to be a nut glued in there and a plastic stud to hold it onto the back?

 

Sounds as if someone's butchered things a bit. A metal stud should come through each hole. The cluster is then held in place with two 10 mm speed nuts, IIRC, screwed to the studs.

JamesC

 

then whatever was there stock shouldn't be a pita to have to remove the cluster off and on?

 

No, half hour job or so. Those two studs/nuts and the speedo cable (and perhaps there are a couple of screws at the top of cluster as well--sorry, it's been awhile since I messed around in that area) are all that hold the cluster in place. Note the second paragraph of the following how-to for removal:

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/faq-...-fix-pics.html

JamesC

 

Oh i've removed it plenty of times, i just wanted to know about what my cluster SHOULD be looking like. lol, btw I had my speedo changed from a 85 to a 145 and went from 2.73 open rear, to 3.23 limited slip, so my cable is disconnected till i could figure out the right drive an driven gear to put in my 700r4 to have it read properly...