Can anyone tell me what pins on the back of a cluster for a 2000 Max are used for the lighting, the ones that light up the gauges, I just got my direct plug in leds for them and the polarity only works one way, i dont want to be in there for hours changing bulbs ., I want to do this on the workbench.

Pics will be shown once done

Here are the LEDS , $10 for 10 On ebay.

 

I just changed mine about a week ago, its 4 black bases, 2 up top on each side for rpm and speedometer and 2 on the bottom on each side for dte/mpg and mileage.

 

Hey thanks for the reply, it helps but iam looking to power the lights up out of the car on my workbench so i can have the polarity right .

 

oh ok, i just took them out one by one and put them on, luckily I got them all right.

 

Seems ill be stuck in the car doing it in the close confines ><

 

Getting the cluster out isn't that difficult. What you can do is plug in the bulbs, hookup the harnesses and set the cluster in place without securing it...test, pull it out quickly to fix the ones that don't work, test again and put everything back together. Once you get access to the cluster, it's not too difficult to get it in and out of the dash.

S

 

yeah, i am worried theres not gona be enough room to access it, but it seems it will be ok.

 

OK i got the lights in, there really bright white but behind the cluster they look blueish O_o, is there a blue filter or something in there?

 

can you give me the link to the led's? is the light output spread out or does it have bright spots?

 

nope, no blue filter, all white leds either look bluish or purple, happens to all super white leds, there is no real pure white led.

 

There is a hotspot behind the odo but the rest is evenly spread out
I got them from this guy

http://stores.ebay.com/EnKMall

Cheap and free shipping on most.

 

I mean they really look blue, i put the same LED in the dimmer switch and its bright white. there has to be something inside, maybe ill take it apart later and look around.

 

I'm looking at doing the same thing... What # were the bulbs you used? most of the ones i could see on the ebay link posted were 168 wedge-type bulbs. do those work or what?

 

There #74 wedge bulbs, and i verified that there is a blueish filiment in the cluster that needs to be sanded down to get the white

 

When you get a chance, can you post pictures of hour your instrument cluster looks now?

 

Just use the Polarg 194s if you want to brighten it up

 

Sure, i gota wait till it gets dark out to get the full effect.

 

Here are a few pics of what i had to do to get the REAL white effect, i had to remove the gauges and sand the blue off the back of them. If you do this, you must use extreme caution removing the needles.

I removed the pics because there HUGE haha

 

So is this still in progress, or do you have some finish shots?

S

 

I just finished now, its still to light outside to see the full effects, Iam going out now to install the cluster and hope i did not screw up any gauges

 

hmm seems ok but the rpm gauge i messed up , when removing the needle i pulled the entire pin out with the needle and now its very slow response also i think my speedo is off abit now, it looks ok otherwise.

 

Something tells me you should of stuck with blue.

S

 

i agree now

 

Ill just buy another one, oh well.

 

found some on ebay with the white faces, not too shabby

 

tHEY'll all have limited light diffusion if you don't sand the blue off

 

but they look so bright white now, looks good minus the gauges not as accurate as before, so seems iam gona need a new cluster because i dont feel like driving around trying to calibrate them on the fly.

 

Did you calibrate it from the get-go?

 

i just put them back on the way i took them off, i did not know if there was a special procedure or not, if there can you help me out with it ?

 

Yes, there is. Let me see if I can hunt it down...

 

Awesome, Iam depending on you now
i have the cluster on my desk, i assume the rpm gauge is fuxored because when removing the needle the armature pin came out with it and when i put it back in, it dont move smoothly and in the car it dont go over 2k rpm lol

 

Hopefully you can get things fixed and recalibrated.

However even though you totally ***** this , you owe us pics of the finish product.

S

 

iam working on that also, the camera batterys are dead so i need to recharge them.

 

Totally Screwed, i'am just gona get a new one.

 

i just ordered those exact same LEDs on ebay. I'm wondering if you have any hot spots or dark spots on your gauges when they're lit up with those bulbs?(cuz they were cheap and maybe low quality?) Oh well, if I do, i suppose i can always go with the better quality ones from autolumination .. they seem to have everything LED. They have different #74's ...www.autolumination.com/74.htm the tri-power ones would probably do the job nicely i think...

 

They seem ok , not the very crisp effect i was looking for but it looks good.

 

Professor, still looking for it, gimme a little bit more time.

I'll let you know in advance that I have tried just about EVERY single LED bulb out there, and only by custom fabbing LED boards was I able to achieve a crisp look.

Either do the 194 retrofit, custom fab, or nada.

I'd imagine you're seeing out to do the same thing I was tyring to do years ago, I hope you can learn from my mistakes!

 

I just learned from my own mistakes, i tried the pinout diagrams with a 5volt psu and somehow i toasted something in the speedo, i was using it to set the gauges, but oh well, I was looking at your work and there is alot of room in there for a breadboard loaded with leds, i might do that on my next project and NOT remove the needles

 

Go for it, man. I'm probably selling my cluster soon, so if you want the BBs let me know.

 

Ide be interested for the right price.