I've been talking about this for some time now, perhaps years. I finally
got together with the local rep for LEDtronics to see if there is
a product that the Dimebank Garage could stock and sell to improve
the instrument panel lighting in our cars.
After messing about with gauges and sockets and bulbs for an hour, the
conclusion is basically "no", or at least, "not yet".
There are a couple of problems.
1. The "standard" small bayonet bulb that is used in the 2" gauges is a
British oddity - LEDtronics doesn't make anything in that base. The LLB987
that is used in the larger instruments *is* available. It turns out that
there's a standard US fixture that can be made to fit up the access
in the Smiths gauges, but it's not really pretty.
2. It doesn't matter anyway. The construction of the gauges is such that
the light takes a tortured and reflected path from the bulb around
the shrouds to illuminate the gauge from the sides. LEDs aren't up to
that - they produce light at a fairly narrow forward angle. Even the
"flat top" LEDs, which spread the light more, don't make any appreciable
impact. This is true for both the small and large gauges.
There are some Smiths gauges used in earlier cars that take their illumination
from a central source through a window in the side of the guage. I
don't have any of those, so I couldn't test that setup - those might
be made to work better.
However ... I'm going to sample some 1157 and 1156 taillights. I think those
have pretty much promise for cars with small taillight lenses, especially
those with thick glass lenses. My GT6+ and Morris Minor will be test
subjects - both of them have fairly low rear light visibility.
More as testing progresses...
chris
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