i bought some 194 leds off ebay for my gauge cluster swapped them all out but all they light up really is the needlesand i can just barely see the numbers.....did i get wrong leds?which ones do i need?

 

FTL??

I bought a set of LED corner bulbs off eBay once and they were crap. Super dim and super crap.

I tend to stay away from the cheap eBay LED's.

 

FTL=For the lose

 

not sure what you paid for them, but here is mine. just completed it yesterday. they aren't the plug in style bulbs though. there are nearly 50 leds. Paid $10 shipped for 100 leds and resistors. just some time soldering them.

daytime before adding a few more to lighten the dark spots:


nighttime completed:

 

check out SUPER BRIGHT LEDS home

Are your LED's flat across the front or rounded? Its been a long time but I believe the flats are wide angle lights and the round are narrow angle lights.

 

Not all 194 LEDS are created equal. You probably just don't have the best ones in your cluster. Post up some pics of the ones you installed if you can. I know I tried 3 or 4 til I found some that worked the way I wanted them to.

 

they are 4 small leds in one plug in 194....they are bright but they seem directional i guess..only light up one section i will get pics tomorrow i guees a need i wider angle led

 

Super Bright LEDs - Miniature Wedge Base Bulbs

3rd box down is what would work for you guys

 

anyone do theres with plug in and have sucess? what did u use?

 

My plug and play they are from superbrightled.com. 194 inverted cone style. I think they were a success.

 

Okay im looking to turn my green gauge cluster into a blue one is there anyway i can do that without doing the led swap. i think in capable of doing that and i dont wanna mess anything up. is there anyway i can just use reg led bulbs instead of the stock bulbs??

 

i don't entirely know what you are asking, but an LED swap alone, will leave you with a blueish green gauge cluster... you have to take apart your dash, sand the back of it, to remove the green tint, THEN put the blue bulbs in...

 

if i sand off the green tint what kinda bulbs will work for in the dash. i know you gotta take the dash apart and sand the back of it.

 

if you sand the green off, you can put in any color you want. that's what i did with mine. i painted mine blue with blue leds.

here is a shot with just the blue paint on them.

 

i'm not planning on bothering with the blue paint, it's essentially the same as putting a red light, inside a red lens... not really necessary, although, the paint would help to reduce the hotspots, working as a diffuser

 

That's the whole reason for colored paint of the colored LED of your choice. Otherwise to diffuse the light output, you'd need to use white, which might or might not change the color of the LED shining through.

I have a how to on this forum, showing step by step how to do this mod, and you could still use the 194's if you wanted to. I used 5mm LEDs, about 60 of them behind my dash and soldered them straight to the ribbon.

 

my question is though, tre, if you are using blue LED's, regardless if they are the actual bulbs, or the 194 style, what is the difference between painting, and NOT painting?

 

Well it also depends on how thick you lay the glass paint on. I've got a healthy layer on my truck, and on shanes truck. The trick is not to add too much, because it will cause the needles to get stuck on higher spots of the overlay. But if you don't use enough, it might look like a different color shining through.

You also have to remember to look at the MCd the light outputs. In my cluster is 6,000mcd (5-5mm leds in each 194 socket). In shane's he bought special 15,000mcd LEDs and I used 6-5mm LEDs in each 194 socket. There's a difference, and his seem to have less hot spots, but he also did some aiming adjustment after I was done modding his cluster.

But to answer your question, painting could be the difference of hot spots and/or differences in colors shining through. It kinda all depends on how **** you are about things matching and being just perfect.

 

i followed your how to and it was flawless. i ended up with nearly 50 in mine. had a few dim spots, so i went back and added some more.

i ended up using 8000mcd. i agree, it needs to be painted in order to help disperse the light evenly. it also helps keep the leds from shining straight through. they are super bright without anything over them.

 

glass paint sucks for that job. I tried it and it looked like ****. Use a few layers of blue transparency film if you can. Looks so much better

 

I couldn't find any film near me, so i went with paint and it came out great.

As part of following my how-to, remember to sand down the tops of the LEDs so they're flat and kinda widen the beam pattern, but now they make flat top led's which I would recommend.

Glad my how to work for you Troy!

 

yep. ground all of them down. the only thing i am still working on is the hvac panel. it isn't a stock ranger one, so it's not being very cooperative.

I used Tamiya Clear Blue model paint on mine.

 

im just wondering if i am able to sand off the green tint and paint mine blue. Cause there is no way in heck that i am able to that led mode. wat kinda bulb is behind the cluster??

 

You could always do the mod like mine and others, just use the plug in style inverted led's in the 194 sockets. Some have had great success with doing it like that. Of course sanding the green off and possibly painting if you wanted to.

 

where can i get blue 194s at in led??