like the other guy below me..i want to change the color of my gauges from yellow to red..how do i do that..i know theres a thread that walks you through it but i mean how..
do i have to buy differant bulbs..
do i have to buy a plastic cover to which it lights up through
any help?
thanks guys i appreciate....ps..google sucks on this stuff..lol

 

When i had my s-10, i just took the bulbs out and painted them with fingernail polish, it worked, its not the best way to do it, but it works.

 

there are a couple of guys on here that have just painted the bulbs behind the gauge cluster with glass paint, you probably saw the post with the red gauges? Those were done with paint.. you'll also need to scrape off the green filter (otherwise it would be crap green probably lol..)good luck

 

Pull your gauges and sand off the green paint on the back of the gauge face to remove the green filter.

Then buy 194 base LED's in the color of your choice, and it's a plug and play swap!

I'll be posting pictures and a How-To after I get a chance to take them this weekend.

To summarize, the only work involved is getting to the actual gauges. This requires:

• Remove the plastic knee-board panel (4 torx screws and 2 clips)
• Remove the metal knee-board (6 bolts)
• Remove the radio bezel (2 screws and some clips)
• Remove the gauge bezel (6 torx screws)
• Work the gauge bezel out from between the dash and the steering wheel
• Disconnect the headlight switch connector and dimmer switch connector
• Remove the gauge cover (plastic cover, 6 torx screws around perimeter)
• Pull the gauges off from the cluster (3 pieces - left, center, and right, speedo and tach are on center piece)
• Pull the 194 bulbs from their sockets
• Replace with 194 Inverted Cone LED's
• Pull the 161 bulbs from their sockets (turn signal indicator, theft light, other warning lights)
• Replace with 161 inverted cone LED's
• Reassemble, start truck, turn on lights, enjoy...

 

What year set of gauges is this mod for?

I'm assuming these bulbs fit a lot of clusters, but the removal steps sound like the stuff in my 01

 

Another question.

Do you know how to change the lights in other parts of the truck?

Like the climate controls, stock radio, and the cruise control lights.

 

your 01 should be the same. climate control is the same concept. just remember, you have to sand your overlays cuz they will still be green even if the bulb is replaced....

 

sand overlays?

 

search/google "john griggs cardomain". get on his cardomain page and find his how-tos. his cardomain page alone answers your questions.

 

he's got a lot of info. Some a bit over my head.

I don't understand why resistors have to be added, I thought lights like that could just be swapped and that's it.

 

if you put even just 9V to a 5mm LED, it'll pop...literally blow up. You must resist the power to the positve side of the diode so that you don't over load it. Compare it to a 500 horsepower engine and a 7.5" Ford rear end....it's gonna blow up. lol.


But if you just want to color change, you don't need to do anything LED if you don't want to. Plug-in's kinda suck anyhow. Just look at his page or search here...there's tons of LED gauge cluster threads, mine being one of them. You could sand away the color, paint on the new color or just leave it and run colored plug-in 194 LED's, though they do kinda suck from my experience with them in a cluster. Though they may have improved in the 2 years since I've messed with them.

 

cool, so I could just repaint the overlays to the color i want, and just get a clear replacement bulb.

 

Painting a new color where the green was sounds better. I have found the larger colored bulbs burn to white after a while anyway. No experience with the 194's.

 

yea i figured that would be a good route, easier too

 

What paint though, glass paint?

 

That's what I would think. Theres a link to the ebay store where he got it.

EDIT: The link is in another HOW-TO thread

EDIT EDIT: Heres the link to the HOW-TO thread https://www.ranger-forums.com/forum2...rt-leds-7.html