Instrument cluster went crazy?!

[Got Smoke?]

Ok started pulling apart my dash cluster the other night to repalce the dim regular bulbs with LED's. Well I didn't have nut drivers to get the screws holding the cluster to the frame so being impatient I reached around behind the cluster and replaced the few I could reach.

Okay at this point with like 3 or 4 LED's in cluster nothing happened.

Today I went to my parents garage where all my tools are and pulled the cluster all the way out and replaced ALL the bulbs in the twist locks with LED's. Red single elements for the gauge back lights and single white elements for the turn signals & high beam indicator. I also took this opertunity to rob some gauges from a spare cluster my Cousin had out of a 84 or 86 Chevy truck. The popped in just like they belonged there and they all worked before I put the dash back together.

Get the dash completely back together and turn the key on and all the lights come on. Gauges, turn signals, high beam indicator...all on...none flashing. Also the only gauge out of all of them (oil pressure isn't hooked up I currently have a set sun pro trio using the stock location) is the voltage gauge. The one I removed did not read accurately so this was one small sign of relief. The gas gauge & temprature gauge both quite working worked fine before the LED swap.

So I figure the old wiring isn't happy with all the LED's so I pulled the choke, brake, turn signal and high beam indicator lights back out and replaced them with regular bulbs. At this point my voltage gauge still works, my gas gauge reads properly until I pull my head light switch on, and the turn signal and hi beam indcators don't burn constantly.


I'm stumped...anybody had any similar issues?

[Got Smoke?]

Anybody?

[zieg85]

By the gas gauge symptom your printed circuit board went bad on the back of the instrument cluster.  My 85 had the same problem, lights on the gauge went to 3 o'clock, lights off or more importantly dash lights off, the gauge worked fine.  You may have damaged it changing out the bulbs.

[VileZambonie]

Check the printed circuit and connections.

[Got Smoke?]

Check the printed circuit and connections.

I plan to do so when I pull the cluster back to pull those leds out. Went out last night to see how bright the new leds were vs. the old bulbs.

Visibility is now worse with the red led's so this whole ordeal has been a big bust.

[reload]

Check the printed circuit and connections.

Plus one on this.  When I had my cluster apart modifying it for new gauges, I pulled the pb out and cleaned every contact with emery cloth.  It's worth 10 minutes of your time. 

[Irish_Alley]

maybe worse cause of the connection problem

[Got Smoke?]

I found my problem to all my screwy gauges when I pulled my cluster out to remove the lee's. One of the copper or whatever electrical ends that the wiring harness plugs into on the printed circuit got bent up and twisted without me realizing it. I smooth it out and lightly touched them up with Emory cloth and now all my gauges work again.

[1979C20]

Glad you figured it out. Where did you get your LEDs from?

[Got Smoke?]

Glad you figured it out. Where did you get your LEDs from?

Www.superbrightleds.com where I get most of my leds from they usually have anything I need. They had the replacement bulbs for my Sun Pro trio gauge setup too.