hard wiring led gauges?

[Coutts]

so i scrapped the led bulbs i ordered because one of them broke (my fault) and i want to switch to red to match my radio. my only question is thiis, how do i install the bulbs? i just picked up 4 red 12v leds from radio shack with the built in resistor and stuff, do i just mount them in the holes where the old bulbs went and just connect all of them to the wire connecting 2 bulbs already there?

 

[Coutts]

come on i know somebody out there can answer my question.

 

[chadi]

youre going to need more bulbs if you do it this way, i had 12 in mine, when i wired it this way, but basically what youll have to do, is

do you see that black wire coming from the #194 holder? yea, youll need to splice into those wires....but there is another way of doing it, the way i did mine, but its dark, and i dont want to go take apart my cluster, but i'll show you tommorrow, on which wire in the harness you hack into...if you do it the way with that black wire, then youll have to kepp the 194 bulb in there(go get a blue led #194?)


too confusing? probably .... tommorow i will look at mine...

 

[Coutts]

noo i am scratching the blue leds and today i bought some 12v red leds from radio shack with a built in resistor (its not a led bulb replacement, its just a standard led). so im wondeing how i could mount it to stay in there.

 

[Genuine Rolla]

maybe some tape...??

 

[Coutts]

ok wait if i am not planning on using any bulbs in there now, if i dont have a #194 bulb in does that mean the overhead light on the left wont light up?

 

[Genuine Rolla]

ok wait if i am not planning on using any bulbs in there now, if i dont have a #194 bulb in does that mean the overhead light on the left wont light up?

the 194 just affects the gauges, not the overhead lighting.

 

[Coutts]

ok, but wait im confused wouldnt there have to be a bulb in there to complete the circuit to the other bulb connected to it?

 

[chadi]

ok, but wait im confused wouldnt there have to be a bulb in there to complete the circuit to the other bulb connected to it?

no, because its a parrallel circuit. not a series circut

 

[chadi]

ok, so if you are going to hard wire them, the two wires you will need to tap into are on the harness closest to the door, they will be red with grey spots(positive) and red with a black stripe(neg)....as for placement, good luck, i found out that the easiest way to do this is to just buy the #194 and #74 bulbs becasue its just plug and play...good luck...

 

[Coutts]

yeah but the #194 and #74 bulbs leave lots of dim spots...

 

[chadi]

maybe just yours, mine leaves one, the old way i did it, i had 12 12v leds with the built in resitors, like yours, and i still had a bunch of dim spots..

 

[Coutts]

ok im going to hard wire it myself with just normal leds and put resistors on them (normal leds have wider angle than built in resistor ones). so what ohm and voltage resistor do i need?

 

[chadi]

6ohm 50watt...i think

 

[Coutts]

u sure???

 

[chadi]

thats what is used for the led blinkers, but i dont know if its the same...couldnt you goto rasioshack and ask them about the resistors?

 

[Coutts]

i did but he said he didnt know what kind i would need because thers different kinds.

 

[chadi]

oh...ive no clue then...

 

[Coutts]

does anybody know???