73 Corvette very dim dash lights, how to make brighter?

[myred73vette]

My 73 dash lights are dim and can't tell they are on until it is real dark out. What is the best way to change this? Thanks

 

[Chas]

IMO,The bulbs may be covered in years of dust or such, I would suggest if you have the chance to take the dash apart enough to remove all of the bulbs and either clean or just replace them with new as they are not very expensive.

 

[6880 Mike]

...I would suggest...to take the dash apart enough to remove all of the bulbs and either clean or just replace them with new as they are not very expensive...

Taking the dash apart to replace only illumination bulbs is the last thing you want to do. Save that job for a time when the dash/cluster has to come out.

Have you tested the rheostat on the light switch? Does it dim up and dim down when you turn the knob?

 

[Chas]

Taking the dash apart to replace only illumination bulbs is the last thing you want to do. Save that job for a time when the dash/cluster has to come out.

Have you tested the rheostat on the light switch? Does it dim up and dim down when you turn the knob?

Your so right.....what was I thinking.

 

[herminator]

Your so right.....what was I thinking.

Boy I'll say! I just had mine apart AGAIN due to R&R heater core - not fun!

 

[6880 Mike]

Your so right.....what was I thinking.

You're cool. Once you've pulled the dash apart and gotten it back together successfully, you learn to live with a bad lamp or two.

:L

 

[Artsvette73]

Live with it thats the way it was. New bulbs won't matter

 

[Chas]

I had mine apart and addressed the bulbs.... i had more than one that was burnt out and put new ones in and it works much better than before.After 30 or so years they tend to wear out I guess.
As I recall I had it apart to install new dash speakers....now THAT was hard to do with large hands.:L

 

[trhao]

My 73 dash lights are dim and can't tell they are on until it is real dark out. What is the best way to change this? Thanks

The instruments are only lit by indirect reflected. They did not have backlight gauges through translucent gauge faces like later cars nor the LED lighting of modern day cars. So they just aren't going to be that bright. But they should be legibly bright or bright 'enough'.

Assuming you do have dim lights compared to typical early C3s - It could just be poor grounding so check that but I'll also second the rheostat mentioned above.

When you pull out the headlight switch and the lights are on, you also can rotate the switch left/right to brighten/dim the interior bulbs. Assuming you have the lights turned all the way up and you don't have some blown bulbs in the dash - there's a good chance there is too much resistance in an aged/worn/cracked rheostat. A sign of a worn rheostat is a lot of flickering especially while rotating the knob or dim bulbs when they should be brighter.

If it is the rheostat you can simply replace the light switch. Or you might be able to rebuild it. What happens is the resistor coiled wire that the rheostat wiper rubs against will wear, develop carbon deposits or even crack. Some can be fixed but I think most people would opt to just replace it if that's the problem.

HTHs

 

[trhao]

Just a thought, has anybody considered LED bulbs instead of incandescent?

 

[Palmbeachvette]

I tried the led bulbs and the brightness didn't increase enough to justify the effort, however the illumination was more white than the greenish tint the regular bulbs have. I ended up going back to the regular bulbs when replacing the speedometer.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

 

[trhao]

Thanks for the followup. I wouldn't take the console apart just to swap bulbs. Incandescents have basically a soft yellowish hue. The green you see is the color of sea foam green color painted around the console's back the light reflects off of. I think they make LEDs in a 'soft' white - they supposedly come close to incandescents I would guess. That might be an option from the harsher white light standard LED bulbs put out. Not my thing but they also make LEDs in bright colors like blue, green, etc...

But there is another potential advantage. LEDs will last a lot longer - wouldn't have to worry about bulbs going out down the road at least.

 

[Vette D.R.S.]

As mentioned above, grounds, make sure they are there, clean & tight.
The rheostat switch can also be a big culprit.

This really goes for any cars, not just vettes


Dave

 

[xfire482]

I don't think dim instument panel lighting is just a Corvette issue, I drove quite a few GM cars over the years and remember thinking that the instrument lighting was not that bright.
Tom

 

[imarivertwo]

I am in the process of changing the incandescent, interior bulbs over to LEDs. My car suffers from very dim lights too. A lot of research has to go into this task, you have to make sure that the LED is the correct one for the lamp your replacing. It's not just a matter of buying a lamp that is the correct voltage and will physically fit the base. You have to consider the type of color, the beam angle, the Lumens, how many LED's are in the lamp, is it forward firing, or is it side firing etc. All these things will effect the end results. So, if you have swapped an incandescent bulb for an LED and didn't get the desired results, chances are you don't have the correct LED for that particular application. Case in point . . . . I replaced the bulbs in the (driver side) dash and the results were a vast improvement over the incandescent bulbs, but the LED I picked for the heater control unit was very disappointing.
As soon as I figure how, I'll post some before and after pics.