Griffith Instrument Lights Upgrade

[MikeE]

lancepar said:

MikeE said:

What happened when you tried the LED bulbs then? Any pics of the effect they gave?

Did you miss this post of mine? Scroll back a few messages.

lancepar said:

Well I'm undecided about the outcome of the LED's I've tried.

But first a correction, the time clock on my car has a bayonet fitting bulb not capless as I thought.

Anyway issue I have with the LED's I tried is that the illimination is not uniform best explained with a photo.



So I'm still experimenting.

Doh, yes I missed your post yesterday!

[lancepar]

Now I've removed the green caps from the bulbs I find that they are 12v 3watt not as the bible and Griff parts list states, 5watt.
Perhaps the 5w bulbs were in the later instruments, anyway as all my bulbs are working I'm just replacing the damaged green covers.

Something else I've discovered is that it looks like the plastic bulb holder for the capless bulbs will fit in the hole of the time clock thus allowing the use of a capless bulb instead of the Ba9 single pole bayonet bulb. The plastic bulb holder will need an earth of course.

I'm keeping mine as original.

HTH

[bomb]

P2070220 by .



I have green backlights on my dash. Very cool !

[lancepar]

bomb,

Yeh real cool man.

[lancepar]

Mike,
Probably to late now but in your opening photo I see you didn't remove the steering wheel rim.
If the horn push is pulled out and the single wire removed from it, then removing the six countersunk cap heads fixing it to the boss will allow the rim to be removed which makes maneuvering the fascia panel a lot easier.

Just to confirm after that after trying LEDs I'm leaving mine as original, 3watt W3W glass bulbs but with new green caps.

[MikeE]

Thanks Lance. Managed it with the wheel on.

I took the dash out when the whale tale was out. I was warned it’s harder with the whale tail in as it compresses the dash aperture making it more likely you’ll struggle get dash in and out without scratching the leather.

Why did you give up on the led instrument lights?

[lancepar]

MikeE said:

Thanks Lance. Managed it with the wheel on.

I took the dash out when the whale tale was out. I was warned it’s harder with the whale tail in as it compresses the dash aperture making it more likely you’ll struggle get dash in and out without scratching the leather.

Why did you give up on the led instrument lights?

My leather was already marked either side the column and the far left corner, I still put insulation tape in these areas to stop it getting worse.

The LEDs I tried didn't give a uniform spread of light, maybe another make/type would work ok.

[FarmyardPants]

Yes some LEDs are like spotlights, ideally you need a unit with multiple LEDs firing sideways and/or frosted glass to diffuse the light.

[Byker28i]

I have my Cerbera done with red led's by the previous owner, works well, bright enough in the dark yet muted. Still going strong 14 years on



I've also swapped to LED stop and tail lights as they are 50% brighter to get through the smoked rear lenses

[lancepar]

[quote=lancepar]Here is a link to the W5W bulb covers that are shown in my previous photo.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bulb-Silicone-Cap-Cover...

Four skins in a pack, sorry couldn't resist

BTW there are two wattage capless glass bulbs 3w W3W and 5w W5W that are the same dimensions and new ones tend to have the wattage printed on them to identify. The consensus is that 5w were fitted originally but if your lights are dull they may have 3w's fitted.



Update.2021
I see these are available in Yellow, Blue, Red as well as Green.
Forgot Orange.

Edited by lancepar on Sunday 4th April 12:32