Thinking about doing the LED mod to the HVAC panel & I need to know which pins (sorry, don't have pigtails for my spare HVAC panel) will power up the OEM indicator lights to figure out + & - on the sockets.

I'm going to try replacing the OEM bulbs with a few 5mm high output LED's first & if they're not bright enough, I'll probably get some green led strips...

I'm working on this in the garage & I'm going to need to attach alligator clips to the wiring connectors to power up the OEM sockets.

My spare HVAC panel is from a 98'ish Explorer & I'm pretty sure it has a blue filter in it now, but I don't think the ***** have any coloring on the indicators.

Any helpful info would be appreciated.

 

Easy solution.....

pop the 'face' off the backside, reconnect or just still leave it connected to truck, remove bulb holders, get out your test light....


also...that expo one won't work unless your ranger has an electric blend door.... ie both your ranger and the expo donor has to be the same door style...

 

I was going to try that, but I didn't want to get out in the truck today (it's in the 90*'s).

How can I determine if I have the electric blend door?
Would my 96 XLT be the same or close enough to the 98+ Explorer to work?

If nothing else, I can use this Explorer HVAC panel to experiment on before I tear into my Ranger.

Would the back light/indicator light wiring be the same for both?
Basically I just need to find which pin is ground & which powers the back lighting, from there I can use my multi-meter to figure out +&- on the OEM sockets.

 

if the hot/cold **** glides smoothly, its electric blend door. if it has notches and sorta clicks, it's a cable blend door.


Everything else, I don't konw. I'm only answering what I know....and from what I've learned in recent weeks of HVAC panel hunting, there doens't seem to be a 194 cable door panel in existance. They're all tiny bastard bulbs and literally nothing from the electric door panels fit on a cable door panel, and vice versa.

 

Ok, cool.
My H/C **** is smooth gliding so I might be in luck.

Hopefully JP7 will chime in on how he wired/tested his HVAC & gauge cluster LED's outside the truck too.

 

I used a dmm after I spilt the hvac apart it to find power and ground.

The leds in the ***** didnt last long.

 

I like the dual colors.
I may use green backgrounds with red, blue or white **** lighting.

 

I've decided to do something a bit more complicated....

I'm going to cut a PCB to fit where the thick OEM clear light diffuser goes & install individual LED's around each of the areas where light shines through the face plate. Soldering each LED & resistor shouldn't be an issue, as long as I run the resistors onto the LED side of the PCB to make the assembly fit inside the HVAC panel.

I think a bunch of hi output green (water clear when off) LED's will light up the face plate.

I'm wondering if I can make the **** indicators glow a different color than green or blue... like red??
I suppose I'll need to block any of the green light from entering the **** inserts & either use different colored LED's to light the ***** separately or figure out if I can drill holes for small LED's into the **** insert itself & see if the ***** still move freely.

Has anybody installed 3mm LED's in the **** inserts to change the color?

 

Yes, the wires break and dont last long.


If you like that green color you should do white leds and keep the color filter in place. As the red wont look right with green leds.

As for the *****, i think if you back light the ***** you will get a better result. Keep in mind the ***** have colored plastic to create the lighting color. You will need either make new ones or live with a square hole in the ****.

 

For that last part about the *****. the 4x4 switches have clear plastic in the *****. you could get a couple of those and you could run any color you want.

 

Thanks,
I have some scraps plexiglas & lexan laying around the garage & I thought I might try to make a set of truly clear inserts for a set of HVAC ***** just to see how they work.

For wiring the small LED's in the actual *****, I was going to try some CAT5 stranded wire (most CAT5 wire is solid conductor, but I have some that's multi stranded) to see if how it would hold up after a lot of **** twisting.

 

I will be lighting the **** indicators shortly.
i am at the point of Dash Mods where that has to be done.
I have SMD LEDs one for each know on there own small PCB.
The PCB will be shaped and secured in the location of the indicator and the wiring will be secured to the back to the know and threaded through the lower portion of the panel in each know location.
Should be interesting, they will be the same LEDs that I used to change the color of the Radio Face to RED; I am hoping to keep the intensity the same.