Need some help gauge cluster lights????

[81_customdeluxe_4x4]

On my 81 custom deluxe 4x4 the lights dont work to light up the gauges like the fuel gauge speedometer and the others. the interior light comes on and the signal light arrows light up when I turn the signals on. I checked the fuses and its ok. also the 4x4 secxtion doesnt light up? This is the only bug I havent figured out on my truck. Please any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[81_customdeluxe_4x4]

Also I checked the bulb at the charge gauge and it didnt look blowed but there wasnt any wire going to the bulb and plug in? is there seperate lights for all the gauges?

[73chevyman]

sounds to me you need to put the cluster out and put in new bulbs..... there should not be any wires to your bulbs the green board on the back takes care of the wires..... cause if you had a wire to every little thing you wouldn't be able to put the cluster in due to all the wires....... pull the cluster you should have about if not more 8 little black plugs change every-1 and your problem with the lighting should be solved.......

[Rogue_Sentinel]

Originally Posted by 73chevyman

sounds to me you need to put the cluster out and put in new bulbs..... there should not be any wires to your bulbs the green board on the back takes care of the wires..... cause if you had a wire to every little thing you wouldn't be able to put the cluster in due to all the wires....... pull the cluster you should have about if not more 8 little black plugs change every-1 and your problem with the lighting should be solved.......

try that 1st,

i had to do this to my, i had to run new wires and a new on/off

[motornut]

Could be burnt bulbs or maybe just the contact of the bulb holder to the cluster's circut,i've had the bulbs loosen over time,if you look close there are little bumps around the light hole these push the bulb holder contacts into the circut board tight to the hole,the bulb may even just be loose in the holder(pulls out),so check the actual bulbs's wires.......

[73chevyman]

well thats what happens when someone trys to use LED's the wrong way man your lucky you didn't have a fire..... not trying to get off subject but, back in the day when i had a mustang the dang thing caught fire in the engine department due to the wire comming from the altinator to the fuse block scared the hell out of me never seen anything like it.... after i fixed that a month later the peice of crap caught fire again at the carburator lets say it was my bad luck car a 1980 fox body streight 6 traded with a friend of mine he had it for 2 weeks and totaled it hahahahahaha............

[81_customdeluxe_4x4]

Thanks for the help everybody I took the cluster out and replaced the bulbs and they started working. Thanks again.

[Alias137]

I have seen it posted somewhere here before about led installed backward can possibly cause a fire. I don't see how this can happen. An led by default tells you it is installed backwards. LED's are light emitting diodes. A diode lets current (and voltage for that matter) travel in a single direction. Since they are polarity sensitive (meaning positive to positive and neg. to neg.), if they were installed wrong, flip it over and re-install. I honestly have never heard of an led starting a fire (installed wrong or right). If you have proof or somekind of an article from somewhere about this, please pm it to me or send me the link or something as I would really like to hear about it. There are a lot of people here that are starting out in this hobby/lifestyle and they are looking for good information. Any mis-information (or hearsay for that matter) could really prevent them from making any modification they have wanted to do. Just my .02, but if you don't know for reasonably sure- don't repeat it.

[73chevyman]

i'm going by what I see in the picture...... one they installed the LED with to much of the metal showing and if you look the metal was melting something from what I see... thats what I was going by when I said it was installed wrong.....

[Rogue_Sentinel]

Originally Posted by 73chevyman

i'm going by what I see in the picture...... one they installed the LED with to much of the metal showing and if you look the metal was melting something from what I see... thats what I was going by when I said it was installed wrong.....

??? what metal are you seen ???









no metal here, Thanks

[Rogue_Sentinel]

Originally Posted by Alias137

I have seen it posted somewhere here before about led installed backward can possibly cause a fire. I don't see how this can happen. An led by default tells you it is installed backwards. LED's are light emitting diodes. A diode lets current (and voltage for that matter) travel in a single direction. Since they are polarity sensitive (meaning positive to positive and neg. to neg.), if they were installed wrong, flip it over and re-install. I honestly have never heard of an led starting a fire (installed wrong or right). If you have proof or somekind of an article from somewhere about this, please pm it to me or send me the link or something as I would really like to hear about it. There are a lot of people here that are starting out in this hobby/lifestyle and they are looking for good information. Any mis-information (or hearsay for that matter) could really prevent them from making any modification they have wanted to do. Just my .02, but if you don't know for reasonably sure- don't repeat it.

Thanks for your .02