Bought new CCOT instrument gauge lights when I rebuilt my instrument panel. (1 Viewer)

[Chungas Revenge]

Superbrightleds.com


194 LED Bulb - 5 SMD LED Tower - Miniature Wedge Base

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[brooklyn]

@ToyotaMatt do your lighted switches work with early model years — ‘67 and such

 

[45Dougal]

They claim to be (and are) much brighter than the original bulbs in the panel, but they are still incandescent and not LED. I took my Cruiser out for a test drive Friday and after a couple of times around the block I went to a store about 10 miles round trip away. When I came out and started the Cruiser none of my gauges worked, and neither did the brake light indicator on the Emergency brake. Engine ran fine. I got home and took the instrument panel back out. I may cut off the tip out tabs on the bottom of the dash because disconnecting/reconnecting the speedometer cable is a PITA if you can't put the cluster in by just going straight back with it. I could not find anything that looked wrong with the wiring. I looked at the fuses and none of them looked blown, but to make a long story short the fuse for the gauge backlights was blown, it just didn't look burnt. Put a new fuse in, and everything works again. Until I turn the light adjustment on the headlights to increase the brightness of light inside the gauges. Not instant but the fuse fails again, once again not in a visible manner by just looking at the fuse.

I put another new fuse in and turned the brightness all the way down, and let the vehicle sit running. 15 minutes later everything was still working. Turned the knob about 1/2 turn and let it run for another 15 minutes, and everything still good.

I had turned the adjustment all the way up after first instaling the new bulbs to see how much brighter the bulbs were, and it is quite a bit. Even at 1/2 turn the brightness is greater than the old bulbs were when the adjustment was at max before. Since the fuse doesn't blow instantly I assume that I am right at the edge of 20 amps of current. The fuse that blows does NOT affect the actual headlamps only the gauges and the backlighting. Is there an easy way to put a current limiting resister inline with these lights so the turning the brightness up doesn't kill the gauges? I'd have to do it at or near the fuses or inline with the headlight gauge brightness adjustment knob. I could try putting a bigger fuse in but I don't like that solution.

Going to go for another 10 mile round trip drive with the brightness at 1/2 turn.

You're blowing a 20A fuse because the dashboard lights are too bright. Something is wrong.
It sounds very unlikely that the new bulbs are over 240W of lighting (12V x 20A) - you'd be blinded by them.

Its more likely that your fuse box contacts are corroded, and the increased current draw is causing the fuse contact to get hot, and melting the solder inside the fuse.
This is why the fuse looks good, but isn't.

Unlikely it's limited to one contact - I'd pull that fuse box out and give it a good clean up. Disconnect the battery first obv.