LED bulbs in gauge cluster

[ben82k10]

I put in new led bulbs, bulb clip holder things, printed circuit and metal clips. The led bulbs are hit or miss if they will light up. When I bought my truck some of bulbs were burnt out so I decided to go to the led. Any idea why they aren’t working? 1982 k10

 

[gmbellew]

Some LEDs are polarity specific. You might need to swap the bulbs 180 in the cluster

 

[PrairieDrifter]

The contact tabs on the holders need bent out sometimes, and some need to be in the "right" position to work.

 

[fast 99]

LED bulbs are very sensitive to electrical resistance. If turning the bulbs 180 doesn't work clean the printed circuit and socket contacts.

I have them in one of my trucks. If looking for a more light, clean housing inside and try either silver or white on the reflector.

 

[ben82k10]

I have replaced the bulb holders and the printed circuit. Tried turning the bulbs 180. Nothing. Oh well. Going back to regular bulbs

 

[Copymutt]

Just replaced all gauge and panel lights w/ cheap 3V LEDs. You have to add a 5.6k resistor in the 12v line to keep them from burning out. Easy to solder at the feed line & cover w/ shrink tubing.

 

[84GMCSierra]

LED bulbs are very sensitive to electrical resistance. If turning the bulbs 180 doesn't work clean the printed circuit and socket contacts.

I have them in one of my trucks. If looking for a more light, clean housing inside and try either silver or white on the reflector.

I painted mine gloss white as I did with the taillight housings.

 

[ben82k10]

Well I went back to regular bulbs. Left turn signal light works. Oh well. I don’t even know where to begin to look to see where a problem is. I’m no mechanic and I’m even less of an electric guy.

 

[ali_c20]

Well I went back to regular bulbs. Left turn signal light works. Oh well. I don’t even know where to begin to look to see where a problem is. I’m no mechanic and I’m even less of an electric guy.

Cheap LED bulbs suck, they are often broken out of the box, or die soon, their sockets are wonky and don't make contact. For a cluster get dimmable quality LEDs. They are expensive.

 

[BadBowtie]

I would pull the cluster back out and find the ground tab that bolts up into the top, left, metal cowling area. It will have like 6 ground tabs on it, maybe only 3 being used by wires. Remove the center bolt/screw and clean the metal ground bracket and the metal dash mounting area for that single bolt/screw.

Think of it as if the main ground bracket doesn't ground to the truck body, then none of the wire grounds are grounding either. One of those wires IS the instrument cluster ground wire.

 

[ben82k10]

I don’t even see that. Only one of my turn signal lights works. Same after switching back to regular bulbs.

 

[DRW65]

I ran into similar issue changing out PC on dash cluster, problem wound up being the new PC, courtesy of China. Installed the original and installed LED bulbs and all was well.

 

[Rob P]

I put in new led bulbs, bulb clip holder things, printed circuit and metal clips. The led bulbs are hit or miss if they will light up. When I bought my truck some of bulbs were burnt out so I decided to go to the led. Any idea why they aren’t working? 1982 k10

A diode by definition is a electronic component that limits current to flowing only one way. That's why they are used in voltage regulators with alternators, to turn the alternating current (AC) into direct current (DC). As such, the led will only light if turned to the correct polarity. In other words, the solution for you is to take the bulb out, turn it 180 degrees, and put it back in.

Ask me how I know this will fix your issue....

 

[ben82k10]

Tried that. Still nothing. It’s probably something really simple too like a fuse or something.

 

[fast 99]

you said some of the bulbs are hit and miss. That leads me to believe there is power on the circuit so fuse couldn't be an issue. Try the old bulbs see if those work.

Actually I put LED's in one truck, wasn't worth the effort. They were higher dollar dimmable and weren't that much brighter.

Problem is these trucks were never designed for LED bulbs. good luck