Some advice when switching to led gauges...

[leothelion]

So i did a overhaul on my gauge lights the other day. Instead of replacing the stock bulb positions, which i had been getting shoddy results with, I decided to put about 3x the amount of 3mm leds right behind the gauges themselves(6 on tac, 6 on speed, 3 each on fuel/temp). So this went well, but for some reason, it still didn't look very good. No matter how i adjusted the leds, there would be dark spots on the gauge face. So I flipped the gauge over, and what do you know, there is a bunch of black stuff right behind where the gauge face was dark!!!! This was on there from the factory. Why you ask? Stock bulbs are incandescent, and have a high heat/light output. So where the bulbs were right behind the gauge face, that spot would get hot and probably degraded over time faster than the spots in-between the bulbs. Also, the area directly in-front of the bulb would naturally be brighter than the areas in-between,(duh) so they put the black "diffuser" there to make the light even around the whole gauge. This is great if your using stock incandescence, however lost of us switch to leds, Because it looks mad cool. So, to remedy this situation, I took some 220 grit sand paper and went to town on the back of the gauge face. unfortunately you cant take off the face of the gauge(well i have never heard of anyone doing it successfully anyways). It a little tedious trying to get some spots, but its worth it. when i was finished i had light output around 3-5 times brighter than stock. Its so bright that i actually ride with my dim set to the lowest setting. anyways, for those of you who have leds in the stock positions i don't know if this will work. quite frankly it might wind up giving you hot spots where your leds are. idk, as i said its just a consideration to get rid of dark spots if you have them, maybe all you have to do is sand off a little bit here and there. anyways just thought I would share that little tidbit of info.