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Topic: The stock '1895' dash bulbs, OR LED brighter bulbs for the dash

in Forum: C3 Electrical

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The stock '1895' dash bulbs, OR LED brighter bulbs for the dash (1/14)
12/28/13 10:24pm

rlu1968
Former Member
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Gordonvillle, TX - USA

Vette(s):
1968 Roadster 427

Joined: 11/28/2003
Posts: 228

With my dash apart and since I am going with a new wiring harness on the 68 would it be a reasonable thought to put in the LED bulbs in the dash for a brighter dash lighting or stay with the old 1895 bulbs.

I understand the LED bulbs won't dim and therefore the rheostat on the light switch won't dim or brighten the lights.

But with the 1895 bulbs, and as dim as they were, who used the light switch dimmer anyway?

Any suggestions from someone who has replaced their old bulbs with the new LED's.

Pros and Cons!!!!!!!

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Re: The stock '1895' dash bulbs, OR LED brighter bulbs for the da (2/14)
12/28/13 10:27pm

HighDesertDave
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Carson City, NV - USA

Vette(s):
Numbers matching 1972 350 4 speed, silver pewter body with blue interior

Joined: 12/4/2013
Posts: 239

Good question! Waiting with baited breath for response.

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My Christmas present to ME! Bought Sat 11-30-2013. 72, 350 4 spd, Silver with blue interior...Can't you just hear Pablo Cruz playing in the background?

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Re: The stock '1895' dash bulbs, OR LED brighter bulbs for the da (3/14)
12/29/13 12:32am

Sarge81

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WEST SENECA, NY - USA

Vette(s):
1981 Blue Ice Met. w/pearl ghost flames TKO500 5speed. LS1 Swap 3.45 Dana 44.

Joined: 12/3/2001
Posts: 2379

I haven't switched my dash lighting to LED lighting for the following reasons:

LED bulbs will most likely be too bright at night. They are very intense compared to an incandescent bulb.

They may "dim" slightly with the rheostat, but will usually shut off abruptly since the LED's technically work off of a pulse width. It's not a very linear "dimming" in other words.

The only way to properly "dim" the LED's is to install a Pulse Width Modulator. I personally don't want to go through all this trouble for dash lights.

I found that when I replaced all my old incandescent bulbs, the lighting was plenty bright for me. I have a hard time seeing at night as it is. On a dark highway with no street lights I actually have to dim my dash lights because they become a distraction.

Just an after thought�have you looked at the Dakota Digitals gauges? Those are bright but dimmable vacuum fluorescent lighting. Expensive setup, but cool looking. Cool

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GEN III 5.7L "LS6" Engine swap
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'69 "N11" Sidepipes
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Born 8/1981
Sequence #3975

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Re: The stock '1895' dash bulbs, OR LED brighter bulbs for the da (4/14)
12/29/13 11:23pm

tb2k82ce

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Lemon Grove, CA - USA

Vette(s):
1982 C3 Collectors Edition 44000 miles, sat in the sun most of its life, My wife purchased it for me for Father's Day in 2007 from her girlfriend that had it for 19 years. It is on the road again. I'm retired but it is now my daily driver.

Joined: 10/17/2007
Posts: 2041

I had to go back to 2008 but I found my post on light bulb site. http://www.memotronics.com/ . This site has lots of lights and if you need to replace them it is a great place to find replacements.

I have a different base for the lights in my car but what I did is look for lights that had that base and then find the wattage after that I could look for higher wattage bulbs. Keep in mind that the higher the wattage the more heat and plastic will melt if you increase the wattage.

The 1895 bulb is a 14 volt 3.78 watt lamp. So I would think that you could go as high as 4.0 to 4.5 watt lamp without much risk. Does a light bulb like that exist ?? do not know you would have to try some different numbers or maybe call out "BA9s" bulb base and search Google to get some numbers then use this site to get the voltage and wattage ratings.

Any way if anyone is ever interested in light you will want to copy this link.

By the way some sites only provide amps and volts so this is how you figure watts (amps x volts = watts).

I did a quick search on the web using the "BA9s" found this #293 MINIATURE BULB BA9S BASE - 14 Volt .33 Amp G4-1/2 then calculated the wattage which is 4.62 watts.

Now if you want to figure out what the light increase would be go to this site http://www.rapidtables.com/calc/light/watt-to-lumen-calculator.htm

In this case the 1895 is 56.7 lumens and the 293 is 69.3 lumens or about an 18% increase in light.

And best of all Memo Tronics has a box (10 ea) of 293 for $2.29 he ships small things through the mail so it should cost may be $0.60 for postage.

Hope this helps

|UPDATED|12/29/2013 8:23:50 PM (AZT)|/UPDATED|

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Re: The stock '1895' dash bulbs, OR LED brighter bulbs for the da (5/14)
12/29/13 10:55pm

rlu1968
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Gordonvillle, TX - USA

Vette(s):
1968 Roadster 427

Joined: 11/28/2003
Posts: 228

Researching came up with your 2008 reply and I had checked that out prior to this post.

Your latest response does make very good sense in which I could at least improve the lumens over the current 1895 ones using the same Ba9s base. At 18% increase is good without the thought of the bulb getting to hot for the housing.

18% without going with the led and having concerns with the dimmer issue sounds good to me.

Thanks

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Re: The stock '1895' dash bulbs, OR LED brighter bulbs for the da (6/14)
12/30/13 12:18pm

Adams' Apple

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Duncanville, TX - USA

Vette(s):
#1-1974 L-48 4spd Cp Med Red Metallic/Black deluxe int w/AC/tilt/tele./p/w-p/b/ Am-Fm/map light National/Regional/Chapter NCRS "Top Flight" #2-1985 Bright Red/Carmine Cp.L-98/auto Member: NCRS, NCRS Texas, Corvette Legends of Texas

Joined: 11/8/2003
Posts: 20129

Someone here, years ago, swapped all his instrument bulbs for LEDs, and did a write-up with pics. It was featured in a "Shark Bytes" issues, and was also copied to the "Tips and Tricks"section of the "Research" bar.....I cannot find EITHER at this point.... Angry

It was a great write-up....and was a fairly simple swap, from what I remember. Don't remember if the dimmer function was part of the final review or not....
I'll keep looking for the info tho.... Ermm

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Joel Adams
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Re: The stock '1895' dash bulbs, OR LED brighter bulbs for the da (7/14)
12/30/13 1:31pm

Adams' Apple

I FOUND IT!!! Clap

The "Winter '08" issue of Shark Bytes has the article on changing the cluster lamps to LEDs. written by Josh(Defsegx), with pics and such. I knew I wasn't imaginin it..... Wacko

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Re: The stock '1895' dash bulbs, OR LED brighter bulbs for the da (8/14)
12/30/13 4:24pm

rlu1968
Former Member
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Gordonvillle, TX - USA

Vette(s):
1968 Roadster 427

Joined: 11/28/2003
Posts: 228

For some reason I can't get the winter 08 article to come up. I can't get past the password sbvo16, in the Shark Bytes.

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Re: The stock '1895' dash bulbs, OR LED brighter bulbs for the da (9/14)
12/30/13 6:49pm

Adams' Apple

sbvol6 is the pwerd...you have the number 1 instead of the letter "L". Just copy/paste what I have here, and it'll go thru. Wink

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Re: The stock '1895' dash bulbs, OR LED brighter bulbs for the da (10/14)
1/2/14 11:57am

knotacare
Former Member
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Newark, DE - USA

Vette(s):
1968 Conv, 454HO,500HP-600TQ, TKO-600,3:70 HD rear,hotrod air, custom paint & suspension,1973 Ruby Red,T-top, 383 Stroker, TK)-500,frame off restro, 1967 Dodge Coronet, 340 stroker to 406, Dana 60

Joined: 7/26/2004
Posts: 463

I switched one of mine over to LED's last yr here's a link

http://corvettec3.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1373213464

Alan

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Re: The stock '1895' dash bulbs, OR LED brighter bulbs for the da (11/14)
1/2/14 11:51pm

Adams' Apple

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Re: The stock '1895' dash bulbs, OR LED brighter bulbs for the da (12/14)
3/6/16 7:14pm

Tomtall
Former Member
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Vette(s):
1973 Coupe -- 454 / 4 speed - Black on Black, Greenwood aftermarket turbo hood, Greenwood GTO style front bumper.American Racing Vector rims.

Joined: 3/5/2016
Posts: 43

I switched all my dash and counsel bulbs out this winter with blue LED bulbs. I really like the look better than the stock bulbs. They are not as brite as the white LED bulbs and the blue bulbs really make the gauge lettering pop in color. I purchased a 20 pack of bulbs off e-bay for $12.

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Re: The stock '1895' dash bulbs, OR LED brighter bulbs for the da (13/14)
3/18/16 2:12pm

snake97
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Metairie, LA - USA

Vette(s):
1979 Black, Oyster interior purchased in March 1980

Joined: 7/7/2013
Posts: 24

Did the same thing on mine about a year ago. I also used blue. I really like the look it give to the dash and instrument cluster. I also like the way it makes the orange paint glow and the white gets a blue tint. The only problem I have is that when I use my left turn signal, all of the light blink. It doesn't hyperflash, just blinks along with the flasher. I've heard this is probably from a bad ground. Blue led's look good and in my opinion . give an updated look to dash

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Re: The stock '1895' dash bulbs, OR LED brighter bulbs for the da (14/14)
3/18/16 3:31pm

Yes the blue LED's remind me of that Black Light poster look. Oh boy am I showing my age. 😆

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