Gear indicator fiberoptic cable with Dakota digital dash

[Stsnipes]

I have a 1972 C10 with a non-tilt steering column. I also have a Dakota digital dash. I did not opt for the extra transmission sending unit for the digital dash that shows what gear I'm in on the dash itself, so I still rely on the "old" selector on the column. Normally, with the original dash, the gear selector is backlit with a fiberoptic cable which runs down the column and plugs into the back of the dash.

This fiberoptic cable is still present in my column wiring, but is not plugged into anything. Is there anyway to plug this into the digital dash, or wire it separately to another dash light to get backlighting for my gear selector? Thanks in advance!

[bowtie72]

Can you use the bulb at the heater controls? I’m not sure if it is long enough.

[MikeB]

How about a miniature bulb connected to the fiber optic cable end via a rubber sleeve or shrink tubing, etc. Then find a dash light source to connect one wire to, and the other to ground, of course. I've seen these called grain of wheat bubs (GOV) and doll house bulbs.

[PbFut]

The fiber optic cable is attached at the cluster to one of the dash bulb sockets. This socket is different thant the other 3 in the original cluster. Assume your digital dash does not use the old incandescent bulb. You have a few choices to drive your fiber optic cable. If you can get the end of the fiber optic cable close to a bulb in your new cluster, that may work.
Or, you could fabricate a small box with a hole to mount the original bulb and plug. Careful, incandescent bulbs generate a lot of heat. Even small 12v bulbs. So vent the box and don't make it too small. Wire one lead to the pin at the fuse box down and to the right of the fuel gauge plug. The pin you want will be marked cluster. The other wire is to ground. This will drive the bulb like the original. If you don't want the bulb to dim like the cluster/dash, then connect the positive lead to your choice of switched power source.

[MikeB]

Originally Posted by PbFut

Even small 12v bulbs. So vent the box and don't make it too small.

The bulbs I mentioned above are around 1 watt, which means little to no heat. However, it could be that 1 watt is not enough to illuminate the gear indicator. It's simple and worth a try on the workbench. In fact, that's where you want to test any solution.

Please let us know what works!

[HO455]

With GM having used the fiberoptic line on as many vehicles as they did I'm surprised Dakota doesn't have a LED conversion for it.

[Rich69shortfleet]

I've tried lighting the fiber optic cable with LED bulbs of various kinds and it didn't send any meaningful amount of light down the cable. I converted my stock cluster to LED bulbs but kept an incandescent bulb in the socket that has the fiber optic cable so my gear selector would continue to illuminate.

[MikeB]

Originally Posted by Rich69shortfleet

I've tried lighting the fiber optic cable with LED bulbs of various kinds and it didn't send any meaningful amount of light down the cable. I converted my stock cluster to LED bulbs but kept an incandescent bulb in the socket that has the fiber optic cable so my gear selector would continue to illuminate.

I'll have to check out mine, because I think that lamp is an LED. However, I don't remember the last time I drove the truck at night!