Instrument panel lights?

Nickathome · Post by **Nickathome** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 2:30 am

Took my son for a ride in the truck Saturday night about 9:00pm. I really hadn't taken the truck out at night before and wanted to try it. Anyway, I noticed the instrument panel lights don't work very well. In unscrewed the two lens covers and found that one bulb was missing and the high beam indicator socket must not be working. It had a working bulb though which I switched to another socket. So I at least have dash lights but man they barely show enough light to be useful. I can just about make out the volt meter, temp gauge, speedometer, and fuel gauge. The oil pressure gauge is completely dark. The lenses are red too, was that common? I can see where the army wouldn't want bright lights inside the cab but these are barely useable to see the instruments. Anything I can do to brighten the situation up?

Lifer · Post by **Lifer** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 3:40 am

The red lenses are there for a very practical reason. The red glow is much less visible to hostile forces and (more importantly) does not mess up your night vision when driving at night under blackout conditions.

If you want to see your instruments better at night, you could remove the red lenses or carry a small penlight in the truck. You could also replace your guages with individually illuminated civilian guages, but how often do you really look at the guages, anyway?

pfrederi · Post by **pfrederi** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 4:34 am

First off on your light switch there are 2 positions for dash lights low and high. On high they are pretty bright.

Secondly look at the gauges themselves. The metal gauge case has 4 slots in it just behind the instrument panel. ( You have to pull the panel to see them. These allow the light into the gauge. On mine they were very dirty and in some cases they may have been painted over (or overspray) Clean them with a Q-tip. If they have been painted you may have a problem as the paint remover and the plastic covering the slots (same as gauge face may not be compatible)

Nickathome · Post by **Nickathome** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 5:11 am

pfrederi wrote:First off on your light switch there are 2 positions for dash lights low and high. On high they are pretty bright.

Secondly look at the gauges themselves. The metal gauge case has 4 slots in it just behind the instrument panel. ( You have to pull the panel to see them. These allow the light into the gauge. On mine they were very dirty and in some cases they may have been painted over (or overspray) Clean them with a Q-tip. If they have been painted you may have a problem as the paint remover and the plastic covering the slots (same as gauge face may not be compatible)

My truck doesn't have the 3 position military switch. Someone removed it at some point, and in its place is a flat panel with 1 toggle switch for the electric feul pump, and two push pull switches that don't work, or at least don't go to anything currently in the truck that works. So at the moment(until I rewire the truck some day) I am stuck with what I have.

m35gibson · Post by **m35gibson** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 5:39 am

lifer,
what kind of response is that

? you should be eyeing your gauges just as much as you eye the road,,,, now granted,, a multifuel , is a hare more
giving, then a flathead six, gasser, but i made the mistake of taking a long road trip,, and not eying my oil pressure,, i made it about 65 miles before noticing my pressure had drop to almost nothing,, luckly
i didnt damage anything,, but from that day forward,, i kept an eye on my gauges,, oh,, and p.s i sold my duece last week,,,im suffering from major withdrawls right now

pfrederi · Post by **pfrederi** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 6:16 am

Nickathome wrote:
My truck doesn't have the 3 position military switch. Someone removed it at some point, and in its place is a flat panel with 1 toggle switch for the electric feul pump, and two push pull switches that don't work, or at least don't go to anything currently in the truck that works. So at the moment(until I rewire the truck some day) I am stuck with what I have.

Sorry all bets are off when you have a home made wiring system.

Check at a socket to see if you are getting a full 28 volts there may be a resistor somewhere....

Lifer · Post by **Lifer** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 7:58 am

M35gibson...I don't constantly monitor my guages. Been driving for so many years that I don't really have to. I check 'em all on startup and once in a while while driving, but I don't watch 'em all the time. I can usually sense when something isn't right before it becomes a major problem. Watching the speedo is kind of a pointless exercise with a stock M37, especially on the open road.

Nickathome · Post by **Nickathome** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 8:14 am

Lifer;

Your previous post did kinda imply that looking at the gauges isn't necessary, which I disagree with, but I did get what you meant by it. Yes, watching the speedometer is kinda pointless, even in the day time, but it does help to be able to see ata glance if something is wrong.

I doubt anyone constantly looks at the gauges, but I do take a glance at them often while driving, especially my oil pressure, and temperature gauges.

Kevin;

Who bought your truck? Anyone we know?

CGarbee · Post by **CGarbee** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 9:32 am

Two other things not mentioned...
You can use a higher watage bulb in the holder in order to increase the amount of light available... Not a really good idea of you have the B1 style guage panel with the plastic light covers as they can get too hot, but ok if you are using the earlier style with the glass lenses. You just need to shop around some (take a gander online at bulbs.com, bayareaamusements, 1000bulbs.com etc.) and check the specs (there is also that PDF on my website that list the tech specs for a lot of bulbs...).
You could also swap out the red lenses for clear ones (not sure what the availability of clear lenses is, I know that I have had some on the shelf at one time...).

Good luck.

m35gibson · Post by **m35gibson** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 9:44 am

hey nick,,
a guy by the name rocco,, he is one of the steel soldiers boys,,
drove up on wed and drove it back. my old duece may not have been the nicest truck out there,, but it was the mechaniclly sound
kevin

Lifer · Post by **Lifer** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 10:33 am

Nickathome wrote:Lifer;

Your previous post did kinda imply that looking at the gauges isn't necessary, which I disagree with, but I did get what you meant by it. Yes, watching the speedometer is kinda pointless, even in the day time, but it does help to be able to see ata glance if something is wrong.

I doubt anyone constantly looks at the gauges, but I do take a glance at them often while driving, especially my oil pressure, and temperature gauges.

Kevin;

Who bought your truck? Anyone we know?

My bad! I didn't mean to imply that looking at the guages isn't necessary. They're there for a reason, after all. Guess I coulda worded it a little better, huh?

m35gibson · Post by **m35gibson** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 11:33 am

were just pickin on ya lifer

kevin

Lifer · Post by **Lifer** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 12:42 pm

Gee! Nice to know I got friends!

knattrass · Post by **knattrass** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 4:14 pm

lifer - eyes on the road always a good thing!!

Lifer · Post by **Lifer** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 7:20 pm

Agreed.

Incidentally, I probably check my mirrors a lot more often while driving than I do my guages!

Instrument panel lights?

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