My temp light and oil light bulbs would not come on when I turned on the ignition switch. I removed the wire from the oil sending unit and grounded it throught a multitester to the battery. I got no reading on the meter. I then replaced the wire on the sending unit, and now I get an oil light so maybe the connection to the sending unit was not good?? but should I not have got a reading on the meter?
The temperature light circuit gave me a reading of about 10 volts when I connected its wire to the ground on the battery through the meter. I took the bulb out of the temp warning light - it is a 194 bulb and it appears burnt out. I bought an IED replacement bulb and it will light but very dimly. I am going to buy a normal 194 bulb and try it but I wondered if the electronics in my car will not support the IED bulb.
Thanks for any information you can provide.
Pat Mills

 

I think what you need to do is leave out the meter and simply ground the wire connected to the sending unit. If the dash light is working and wired properly, it should come on. If it does, it means your problem is in the sending unit, the replacement of which seems to have fixed your problem.

To use the meter, I think you would simply disconnect the wire from the sending unit and attach it to one side of the meter. Touch the other side to ground, and, if things are correct, you should see 12 volts on the meter.

I think the oil pressure sending unit works by opening the circuit when there is sufficient pressure and closing it to make the light light up when the pressure drops below whatever the setpoint of the sending unit is.

If I'm wrong on any of this, I'm sure someone will let us know.

 

Yep, and this sounds right to me.

Sounds like you just had a bad connection for the oil light. Polish the contacts up with a dremel or scotchbrite.

LED bulbs should work, but are unneccessary for these applications. A 194 is normal, but I used a brighter 168 bulb - brighter is better for idiot lights.
Polish up the contacts on all the electical connections while you have the cluster apart - a pencil eraser works well of free of oily residues.

 

You might check the wiring connector on the back of your instrument panel. If the 442 one is the same as my Cutlass, it looks similar to and old vacuum tube connection. I have had fits with mine with pins loosening up.

 

Thanks Mike - I have them working - will be starting the body off in a couple of weeks - so will be able to clean everything up really well - am going to drive the car to the shop so I wanted to be sure that all was well.

Pat

 

Glad to hear you got them working. Sounds like the real fun starts in a couple of weeks. Show us updates.

 

From Daniel Stern lighting:
> I would like to improve the gauge lighting in my 70 Olds. The factory
> used 194 and 168 wedge type bulbs.
168 is a 5w bulb producing 40 lumens. 194 is a 4w bulb producing 25 lumens.
You can put in P3652 bulbs, which are ultralong-life 2000-hour 5w bulbs producing 75 lumens. It is quite costly to make a bulb this efficient and long-lived; they are $3.98/ea.
> What do you recommend to improve the illumination? I am somewhat leery
> of LED type lights.
That's wise -- you would be disappointed if you tried to use LEDs. Their directional output would create a few dim spots scattered around your dashboard!

 

This is incorrect.

LED Bulbs will be THE MOST drastic improvement you can make to your dash lighting you can possibly imagine.
Anyone who tells you otherwise, just hasn't done it or seen it yet.
There are SMT LED's that have 5 LED lights on them in 194 or 168 bulb size you can get off Ebay.
http://cgi.ebay.com/2-Pcs-T10-194-Li...item19b985877f

This is on a late 2nd gen Camaro with the single direction LED's , not even the really good LED's that shine in ALL directions.
This pictures shows the HUGE difference between incandescent bulbs against white faced gauges.


He used this style. These aren't even the better one's I showed you in the Ebay auction.