Tips and Tricks: Brighter Gauge Lighting

I've had the gauge cluster out of the '66 a number of times over the past few years for various "refurb" projects. I have experimented with new incandescent bulbs with new diffusers, and blue LED lighting in place of the stock incandescent bulbs as well. Recently, while the gauge cluster was out to add an XM module to the Pioneer stereo, I decided to experiment once more.

The gauge cluster itself basically sandwiches the gauges and some oddly-placed light bulbs attempt to light up the gauges at night. But even with new incandescent bulbs and new blue diffusers, the gauges usually appear with a dim, green glow.

Well, the green glow won't change with this method, as I believe this is caused by a yellow incandescent light bulb lit behind a blue diffuser (yellow + blue = green). But the green glow will appear much brighter by repainting the white gauge cluster with a silver metallic paint...

Before: The white background of the gauge cluster wasn't bright
and shiny anymore, so the dash lights were ineffective. 

During: With gauges removed, paint the white areas with silver metallic.
Don't paint the black areas. (Sorry for the blurry photo...)

After: With shiny silver metallic paint and new diffusers, the bulbs
light up the gauges much better.

Here's what I used. You'll need a silver metallic paint
for this task. The more reflective, the better.

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Electrified

With the upgraded alternator I added some time ago, and the recent mini starter, not to mention the electric fan, I needed to clean up the wires. I'm using an Orbital battery, which is similar to the Optima but it's black to blend into a classic car engine bay a bit better. This battery has top posts and side posts.

I added Taylor battery terminal covers #20670 to clean up the top of the battery.

I also added some Monster Cable side terminal bolts. This allowed me to use them to install the starter, alternator, and electric fan wiring to the positive post. And an extra ground cable to the negative post. I had to cut the extra-long bolt a bit. If the item you are installing does not have a big draw this should be Ok. You wouldn't, however, use these side posts to install a winch for example.

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Steady Sweeper

I have an Auto Meter 3363 Sport-Compact Fuel Pressure Gauge on the Bullitt. Most recently the gauge had been sweeping from 20-100psi for no apparent reason and with no drivability problems, which tells me the sending unit is probably bad. Before that, at idle the gauge was fluctuating between 30-32psi so it seemed like it was on the way out anyway.

Because the gauge is at least 5 years old, the previous sending unit (#4590-0008-22 P158-5190-2) was no longer available. Auto Meter has a new and improved replacement for these 0-100psi electric full-sweep gauges, but it's not obvious when calling the mail order places. It is Auto Meter #2246 Replacement Sender (#4590-0023-12). Besides the subtle differences in the photos, the port on the new replacement is quite a bit larger than the old one. With the new sending unit, idle is rock steady at 30psi and the gauge now sweeps correctly.


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The Albatross Has (Finally) Dropped From Around My Neck...

Just like Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Ancient Mariner, the albatross hanging from my neck (an inoperable passenger brake light, in my case) has dropped into the ocean and freed me from my life of misery. Ok, it wasn't that bad, but it seemed that way sometimes! :-)

A couple years ago I had noticed that my passenger rear taillight seemed to be not working properly. I didn't think too much of it since I had so much other work to do on the car as I disassembled much of it for paint. I did, however, ask the vendor of the LED sequential taillight kit to replace the passenger side unit. (They did.) I figured it would be fixed when I reassembled everything after paint and that would be that.

Fast forward a couple years. My car is done with paint, and it's pretty much assembled. I replaced just about all of the wiring and switches last year. But the passenger taillight is still dim when the lights are on, and the brake light only works (dimly) when the car is off. When the car is running, the brake light on that side does not work at all. To fix the light, I've wracked my brains and spent stupid money replacing (again) new wiring, taillight housings, the turn signal switch, headlight switch, and even flashers... (I did after all have my share of defective reproduction wiring and switches.)

So today, perhaps out of complete confusion and total despair, I swap in two regular ol' 1157 bulbs, and voila! the passenger tail light and brake light work... I guess I got two bad LED lights in a row for that side? I couldn't get the slick LED backup light bulbs to work either last year, so I stuck with the regular incandescent bulbs there. Just to complete the trifecta of LED aggravation, I removed the LED parking lights on the front of the car (which worked fine!) and went with the 1157s up there too.

So now the only LEDs in the car are in the gauges (which work fine.) And all my lights are operational. I also decided I'm not putting sequential taillights in the '06 like I was considering... Not sure of the moral of the story here—besides having a run of bad luck perhaps—but it's a relief for sure!

Brand New Repro Parts, Part III: Yet More Adventures in Head-Scratching

I've been chasing a passenger rear brake light that's out and just replaced the turn signal switch thinking that might be the issue.

Surprisingly, the new expensive OEM unit I bought was defective. Neither rear light worked after I installed the switch. So I removed it and installed a cheap repro unit I had on hand. So now the switch worked (but the light problem persisted - darn.) In the end it was a complete waste of time.

On eBay I did find a NOS turn signal switch that I bought for $57 (vs. $80 for the OEM one...) I'll install it later when needed. It's been in the box for decades, so I feel funny using it unless I really need it now! (In the photos, the defective OEM unit is on top, and the NOS unit is next to the box.)

[Update: Ok, since I have the patience of a mouse, I already installed the NOS switch—and I feel good about it! Since the turn signal switch is such an integral part of the electrical system on these cars, there's no use running with a cheap one when I can use the best.)

Let There Be (More) Light!

I had purchased a pair of Sylvania H6024ST SilverStar 65-Watt High Performance Halogen Headlights last year when I was reassembling the car. I figured any modern light would be good enough, and the price was about $20 per bulb, so they must be pretty good. Well, they didn't work out for me. I found them to be not bright enough, which might be a result of the white light they emit (rather than the usual yellow).





These might fit the bill for somebody that just wants a white light. I'm assuming that a whiter light requires far more light to illuminate the road. Looking at the lit bulb they seem bright enough, but not driving down the road (for me anyway).





So I bought a pair of Sylvania H6024XV XtraVision 65-Watt High Performance Halogen Headlights from Amazon. These appear brighter to me, so I can see better at night while driving down the road.





In the last photo you can see the yellowish light rather than the white light from the ST's above... And these were $13 each from Amazon.





(The first two photos are the ST's and the last two are the XV's.)




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Tach Attack

I had previously purchased some blue LEDs to replace the small instrument cluster light bulbs. They went in easily enough (didn't have to remove the steering wheel or unhook the wires behind the cluster, just the screws holding the assembly to the dash, and the speedo cable), but my aftermarket SunPro tach didn't look right using an incandescent 194 bulb.





I tried a blue 194 bulb, which helped a bit (a green one would look right using stock blue instrument bulbs believe it or not). In the photo you can see a blue LED replacement bulb I bought on eBay for the tach (in the middle). I bought 2 which was good because the first was DOA (if it doesn't work, remember polarity matters, and they install in one direction--so swap it around in the socket).

This photo shows the whole dash lit up with the LEDs including for the tach...






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High Voltage

I finally got around to installing the 3G 95amp Upgrade Alternator Kit that I purchased from PA Performance months ago. I'm not sure I needed to upgrade to a 3G alternator right now, but I plan to add a small stereo soon and maybe A/C one day.

I was able to wire the fat positive cable in the kit to the solenoid on the fender, along with other positive leads from misc items like my electric fan so it looks pretty clean. The alternator itself didn't quite fit in the intended space. The positive post on the back was almost touching the Edelbroack aluminum head... I took the alternator to a local alternator and starter shop and they re-clocked it for me by disassembling the unit and twisting the back half around. I didn't want the wires pointing up since that would be unsightly, so I had them point down. This caused the negative post to switch places with the positive almost touching the head, but that's Ok since it won't short out.



The electrical system now puts out 14.21v at idle without any electrical items running. When I turn on the headlights (they use a relay harness) the system drops to 14.20v. When the electric fan kicks on, the system drops to 13.89v and then immediately recovers to 14.19v. (Compare this to the weak 13.1v recovery I saw a few months ago with the 65amp alternator.)



This system uses a modified external voltage regulator, which looks stock but picks up the proper circuit, and uses the rest of the stock wiring behind the alternator. But I think (not sure) that the internal regulator on the back of the new alternator is operational instead. Also, I have the stock positive lead (and ground) hooked up to the back of the alternator, and my ammeter still works fine (so far!).

Is This What They Had in Mind?

The stock dash lights on these old Mustangs appear dim and green. What's odd is that there are 4 of them in the cluster and they are pretty bright on their own, but they don't light up the gauges too well. There's also a blue plastic "diffuser" that each bulb fits under, but still they appear green--even with all new stuff. I think it's because a yellow incandescent bulb and a blue diffuser equals a green light.

Enter the LED... I bought a kit of blue LEDs (and a couple clear ones) for replacing the dashlight bulbs for about $25. I used this opportunity to grease the speedo cable behind the dash too. (Sorry for the poor pic though.)

The clear turn signal bulb sockets were kinda loose and the bulbs were springing out, so I took some pliers and gently squeezed the sockets where they were grooved for the bulbs. This caused the stops on the sides of the bulbs to catch and hold the sockets better...

AC/DC

I bought a new 95 amp 3G alternator, along with a fused power cable and a stock wiring kit with modified voltage regulator, from PA-Performance. This will replace the 65 amp 1G unit on there now, which really can't keep up with the electric fan. Actually the fan only uses 10 amps, but at idle the alternator probably doesn't put out more than 15 amps. Along with the MSD igntion system and the relayed Halogen headlights, I'm getting about 13.1v at idle. The new alternator should put out about 60 amps at idle to maintain 14.5v. Someday, I actually might get around to installing this thing.

Brand New Repro Parts: Adventures in Head-Scratching

After I figured out my brand-new repro fuel sender float had a pinhole in it (after I installed it of course), and then replaced that, I could check out the electrical issue with the front parking lamps, which double as turn signals. To make a long story short, I was given some good advice on the forums that sent me checking the wiring behind the parking lamps. I found that the blue and brown wires were reversed on both brand-new reproduction assemblies. Un-freakin-believable. Oh well, I guess the moral is don't assume a replacement part is not defective out of the box...

Exhausting, Yet Electrifying...

I picked the car up yesterday from the muffler shop. He did a great job getting the Magnaflow exhaust to fit. The fuel tank required some persuasion to get the tailpipe around it safely, which I was expecting to some extent. Sounds good too, much quieter but still a good rumble when I get on it.

I almost forgot: we start the car and after 5 seconds it starts to smoke, and I mean smoke out of the exhaust. We wait ten minutes and it's still smoking, maybe worse. I decide to pay and leave after we figure the pipes have some oil or grease in them from manufacturing and assembly and it should burn off. Maybe a quarter mile from the shop with a huge plume of smoke from the car, I get on it and see an object shoot out one of the tailpipes and roll along the highway with blue smoke all over it. I think a shop rag or something ended up in the pipes and burnt up before getting ejected out the back. Problem solved, and in spectacular fashion no less! No more smoke.

With the fresh battery in the car, I swung by Advanced Auto Parts and they tested the alternator on the car, just to see if I had figured out the electrical gremlin from the other day. Wasn't putting out enough voltage and actually dropped when I revved the engine. Hmm. I bought a new regulator for $15 (to replace the other new one) and swapped it on. Brought the car back to them, after the swap and after trickle charging the battery, to check the alternator. The battery has 12.5v at standstill with car off vs. 11.5v yesterday. With car running at idle the volts were still 12.5 vs. 11.5 yesterday. I decided to rev the engine to 2000rpm and sure enough the volts went past 14, unlike yesterday when they dropped with higher rpms. So partly, I had a bad regulator.

But also it appears that the March underdrive pullies don't charge the battery suffieciently at idle. Not sure what to do here yet. But definitely keeping the jumper cables in the trunk!

The "Key" to Keys

Believe it or not, you can still get original "Pony" keys from NPD. The Pony keys are on the left and the reproduction imported Pony keys are on the right. The pic is not that great, but the differences are clear when you look closely in your hand. Best of all, the original keys are only $2.95 each.