Replacement Instrument Panel Lights

[Gavin]

I would like to replace the globes that illuminate the speedo and fuel guage etc with LED's and while I am at it replace teh bases as well - because the earth connection is very troublesome.

Can anyone recommend a product or supplier?

thanks

[sagaboy]

I would like to replace the globes that illuminate the speedo and fuel guage etc with LED's and while I am at it replace teh bases as well - because the earth connection is very troublesome. Can anyone recommend a product or supplier? thanks

LED also need good earth/ground to operate.
What I did was to buy a cheap multi LED torch light and remove the LED and solder 4 of them in series like this: 2 LED in series connected with a 6 inch long wire and another 2 LED in series, one end of the led connect to 12+ and the other end to earth/ground--insert each of the double LED into the speedo illuminate hole.

For the Hi beam, I solder two led in parallel with one end to a 390 ohm quarter watt resistor and the other end to ground.

The Alt, signal and Oil lamp, I left them as original (too troublesome and not worthwhile energy saving wise to change them to LED).

[58Blue]

LEDs in the speedometer can be a bit tricky if you want to do them all. Some are reverse polarity, and the one for the alternator has to have an "exciter" so that it draws enough power to initiate charging. LEDs also don't spread their light as well as bulbs. There are a couple of sellers out there selling sets.

This place looks to have what you'd need for a simple drop-in changeover. The price is a fair bit higher than what you'd pay for bulbs, though.

[Chris V]

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewto ... &highlight

I was thinking of converting to LED's but found some gain in lighting through painting the inside of the housing with chrome paint instead...

The lamp holder is just held in by compression (it also serves as ground), a little elbow grease with some abrasives and some dielectric grease should fix it right up.

[sagaboy]

Standard touch light LED are rated 3.6/7 volts and uses 20 milliamps. There also common 1 watt LED (produces equal to a 10 watt bulb) rated 3.6/7 volts that uses 270 milliamps, you will need a 1k ohm wire-wound resistor to adjust the light output as it is far too bright.