Antarctic IDI Build

[Bart F-350]

great! I do have the impression that the light behind the instruments (tacho, speedo and voltmeter and watertemp) is less uniform as designed/it was with the regular bulbs?

 

[79jasper]

great! I do have the impression that the light behind the instruments (tacho, speedo and voltmeter and watertemp) is less uniform as designed/it was with the regular bulbs?

Typically leds do create those hot spots.
Depends on the type used also.
I've seen people lightly said the top to somewhat filter/spread the light more.
But a night pic would give you more of a representation.

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[Thewespaul]

I’ll get a good pic once it’s dark out. The older bullnose and bricknose clusters were notorious for the bright spots in the back lighting, the spread wasn’t as good as the obs clusters which look very clean with leds. It’s like that even with the stock bulbs, I think the leds just make it more obvious since they are brighter. There’s no blocks or shaders that the leds delete so that’s not the cause of it

 

[chillman88]

Wes if you don't mind, sometime after dark see if they dim any and if they do could you post a bright and a dim picture?

 

[Thewespaul]

Yeah sure thing, although the amount they dim seems to vary between manufactures. My leds from super bright leds.com dim all the way in my 93, but they were pretty pricey. Almost $40 just to do the cluster, I used an eBay seller that was recommended in the led lights thread on this truck. They were much more affordable and was able to buy bulk so I’m curious to see how they do.

 

[Thewespaul]

Alrighty here’s dimmed all the way down

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And all the way up

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With the brightness all the way up the spottyness is less noticeable, and not overbearing you bright, but it still bugs me with it not being uniform, what are y’alls thoughts on a remedy for this?

Almost looks like the speedo led is a different tint, all these bulbs came in the same bag...
So far I think the more expensive bulbs are worth it.

 

[Thewespaul]

Picked up the turn signal switch from the parts store, had to special order it in. Unplugged the original one and plugged the new one in with a jumper wire for a ground and turn signals work! Rear lights are still disconnected but front lights both worked as they should and dash indicators as well. Great.

Pulled the broken switch out and got ready to install the new switch. The moon shaped connector needs to go down the column and connect under the dash, but it won’t slide through without tearing into the column which I didn’t want to do since we aren’t replacing anything else. So little trick is to remove the pins from the connector and use needle nose to get the individual wires down the columns then repin it.

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Got the new connector back in and repind, puting the lock back into place

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And after doing that of course I realize the new switch won’t fit in the housing, it’s meant for a non tilt. Checked the part number and it’s correct on the box, must have been packaged wrong. Of course I didn’t figure that out until after having the panic “wait is this a tilt column?” Was hard to tell since I had the top hat off but looking underneath I can see the linkage, need to catch up on some sleep haha

Here you can see the differences of the tilt vs non tilt turn signal switch

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[no mufflers]

I would try the high quality bulbs. Maybe pull it out and try some different bulbs while putting power to it.

 

[Thewespaul]

I’ll see if I can get some this week, but I’d like to try the better bulbs and see if it makes a difference in the older dashes

 

[Bart F-350]

It's a good thing that we have you here on the forum! now a lot of people with Led questions have their questions answered without themselves doiing all the work You're a great guy!

now serious, I did'nt mean to saddle you up with extra work when I noticed that. sorry for that.

 

[Thewespaul]

It's a good thing that we have you here on the forum! now a lot of people with Led questions have their questions answered without themselves doiing all the work You're a great guy!

now serious, I did'nt mean to saddle you up with extra work when I noticed that. sorry for that.

Thanks Bart, glad the info in this thread has helped you no extra work, if these leds don’t work it’s maybe half an hour to swap them out, so not a big deal and if the owner doesn’t like these lights I’ll swap them out.

As a comparison here’s my 93 with the pricey leds. It’s got good coverage at night but it still looks spotty during the day, but not as bad as the bricknose dashes.

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[Thewespaul]

So got the new new switch in and the dash back together.

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Tracked down this trim piece, a little cutting and it fit nicely with the gauge pod

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cleaned the outside of the fuel tank then wiped down the inside, there was some larger contaminates but now goo plastered on the tank, so not bad at all. I think most the crud was already sucked into those prefilters I replaced. Picked up a new shower head so the tank is ready to go back in

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pulled the ac compressor and the dryer so ac is ready to flush.

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So odd thing with the lights, when the non tilt turn signal switch was plugged in the lights worked perfect. With the correct tilt switch in I’ve got the same issues as before. Plugged this new switch into another tilt truck and lights work so I know this switch is good.... never had a lighting issue when converting a truck to tilt before and I’m not seeing a difference in the wiring schematic for tilt vs non tilt trucks... so I’m thinking the compatibility issue is with the ambulance modifications that were done to the lighting circuit.

Project jerry is going to get a tilt column so I’m gonna pay extra attention to the wiring in that truck when I’m working on it and see if I can find the source of our problems.

 

[corrado9184]

Just payed attention to this post, i watched that thing get loaded up to go away. It was probably one of the better vehicles they were auctioning off. They also replaced the 4x4 van fleet and they were terrible, they looked to have been 2 wheel drive vans that had been converted. I was glad when they went away and good luck on your project.

 

[Bart F-350]

Thewespaul,what do you use after you flushed the AC system?
mine is empty at least 14 years, and normally it's charged with R-12 which we now aren't allowed to use.

 

[Thewespaul]

Thewespaul,what do you use after you flushed the AC system?
mine is empty at least 14 years, and normally it's charged with R-12 which we now aren't allowed to use.

Sorry for the late reply, you will need to buy the fittings to convert it to the r134a connections if that has not been installed. After flushing I run filtered compressed air through the lines to blow any leftover flushing sauce out, then pull the system down on a vacuum for about 15 minutes. This allows me to test for leaks, and it lowers the boiling point of any moisture leftover in the system causing it to evaporate so you have a clean, decontaminated system to fill the freon with.