First Post, longtime reader of this Forum. I own a 1966 442 and recently went through and changed all 10 Dash lights over to LED's. Turned on the light switch and Nothing........ Removed all the LED's and put back 194 bulbs that were in it and fired right up. I am assuming that I am not getting the full 12V that the LED's require. Anyone else run into this problem? Any suggestions?

 

LED's are generally more sensitive than Incandescant bulbs, meaning they will light with less current. You might try testing one of them with some small jumper wires off of your battery, or any 12v DC source. LED's are polarity sensitive also, meaning that they won't light if pos is hooked to neg by accident (won't hurt them either, just switch your leads). If it lights up, try swapping that one in to the dash (be sure to try it on the dash lights and not one of the idiot light sockets). If it won't work in the dash then yes, you may have a voltage issue there, but more likely a polarity issue. If it lights in the dash, keep on swapping till you have em all changed out. If one works, they should all work (you can test each one with the wires). If it turns out it is a polarity issue, return them for a different flavor, as the polarity on your inst. cluster cannot be reversed. Hope this helps.

 

A couple of LEDs that I installed in my dash did not work so I removed them, checked the little wires, turned them around and then they worked fine. It was the polarity.
On one light I had a problem with the old socket - the contacts were not seating properly. I just fiddled with the little wires on the light and got it going.

Now, since all ten of yours are not working I wonder if you have a polarity issue because chances are that 50% would work. As Randy suggests, try testing them with a jumper.


Good luck, Peter

 

Yes, LED bulbs only work one way unlike regular bulbs.

If they don't light, pull them and turn them around and they will

 

Thanks guys, I tried every which way numerous times, borderline OCD actually. I am a bigger guy so I figured I was only going to be able to get under the dash once so I better stay down there till i got it figured out!! I will try the jumper solution next to see if they are just flat out no good.

 

Realistically, this is a 1966 automobile -- It probably resents the addition of LEDs and is giving you a message.

I'd go back to incandescents and stay with them - you wouldn't want the car to quit on you in the middle of nowhere just to prove a point...

... would you?

- Eric

 

In addition if there is a resistor in line with the power!
You should check the voltage on either side of the resistor they can be bad! And don't worry about hints of technology on your old ride, all u old farts didn't have Internet back in the day but you are using it this moment! Just be glad we're not on 2400 bps modems still.

 

The only resistors are built in to the bulb housing itself. Typical white or blue LED bulbs run at approx 3.4 volts.

 

Finally got back around to these little buggers, got a new set from Amazon and they worked... Guess you get what you pay for on Ebay...

 

Them are bright. Can they be controlled by the light rheostat?

 

Yupp turn them around my dad bought a set awhile ago off eBay and I had the same problem except half work and half didn't switched them and bada bing bad a boom they worked

 

Yes, they do dim with the rheostat. The Ebay ones did not work in any orientation, either eye closed, standing on either leg or hat frontwards or backwards.