Source for LED's for dash lights?
 

Hi, folks! I'm working on the wiring harness for my LS1/T56 swap into a '66 Mustang, and need your collective help with LED's. I'd like to use LED lighting for the indicators on my instrument cluster, if possible. That means 2 separate needs.

First, I have this dash cluster:
[link]http://www.cjponyparts.com/scott-drake-dash-bezel-six-hole-gt-1965-1966/p/IB45-V/[/link]
which is designed to use the factory incandescent blubs for the high beam, and left/right turn indicators. I'd like to replace those with LED's that fit the same hole. I don't care about the electrical connections - i can work with whatever there. The fitment into the stock hole is what's needed here.

Second, I need to add (at least) 2 more indicators, for my 'cruise control enabled' and 'MIL'. If anyone has a good source for a small LED indicator of appropriate size and brightness, with a good, clean finished look, I'd be very interested. I'm a mechanical guy, and really don't have a good resource for this kind of thing.

Also, any lessons learned when using LED's in this circumstance would be helpful. I've got the basics, like using a voltage divider circuit and so forth; any next-level stuff would be awesome.

Thanks, folks!
:cheers:

superbrightleds.com will point you in the right direction.

get on ebay and search led dash indicators.

theres over 1600 options to choose from varying in color and size.

most are flush mount.

I did something similar when I converted to aftermarket gauges on my car, but cheaped out and acually used some of the housings you can get at a parts store that are like a 1/2 " plastic dome that had a bulb in it and I just swapped out the bulb for leds. They ended up being quite a bit brighter than I wanted them to be so I would look into that a bit when picking an option. Also note if they are polarity sensitive when installing them (ie positive has to be positive and ground has to be ground).

Best thing would obviously be to seem them in person and choose, but the only time I have ever seen them on display is going to a large carshow like good guys or street rod nationals that has a large vendor area.

Yeah, that's just the problem. There are a gazillion options out there, but I really don't know enough to be able to narrow them down enough to a manageable size.

Agreed, the brightness is definitely a concern. I don't really want to be screwing with a PWM circuit just for the brightness of my indicators...

On polarity - is there a case with an LED where they would NOT be polarity-sensitive?

Thanks for the quick responses, gents.

-Matt

Matt-

as far as narrowing them down id start with a size and color of the led that will strip away quite a few. just sticking with 8mm alone narrows it down to 173 choices. browse the first few pages looking for a style that suits you or a size and than narrow it down. I would think if they are dash pilot lights they would be quite a bit more dim than what I chose. Autozone used to have those 8 packs of leds ment for hiding under seats or lighting up footwells and thats what I used. which are way to bright to be an indicator, it would actually function pretty well as an outer indicator honestly.

technically no they are all polarity sensitive since its a diode. I should have worded it differently.

I usually go to the street rod nationals in Lousiville and they typically have some on sale and on display but for the life of me I cannot think of who is ussually showing them off. If you plan on being that patient when I go this year Ill make note of it since im gonna re work my gauge panel myself.

Hey, so searching the SuperBright website, I'm seeing some new LED headlight bulb retrofit kits. Has anyone messed with these before??

And when you do get your lights . test them all , I ordered some l e d 's of different colors and somehow the blue one was dimmer than the rest . I also ordered extras of each . JOHN

Always polarity sensitive on DC. You can use them either way on AC, they'll only work in one direction but at 60 cycles/sec you won't notice...

Good call. At $0.60 each, I'm ordering several. Boom!

-Matt

Ahhh, I hadn't thought about that. I suppose it's very similar to running a PWM circuit, but instead of 'off' being off, it would just be reverse current, which would be blocked by the diode. Interesting.

for anyone else interested in this, check out newvintageUSA in their indicators section - some very interesting stuff.