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Lights for tach and clock.

croach1776

Tonto
Member
I havent looked yet but before I start trying to remove and check....is it possible to replace lights for tach and clock. Any info would be appreciated. Thanks
 
It used to be possible to buy a set for the instruments, plus a bulb for the clock.
Sorry, I don't recall where though.
Hopefully someone will know of be able to find the source.
Mebbe Murph?

Ride safe, Ted
 
I used led bulbs from superbrightleds.com The background lighting is green 4 ea 194-g5: green bulbs. The clock is the (1) 74-ghp: green. The indicators are the 194-g4 in green, blue, and red. I found that the high beam indicator was too bright with 194-b4-90 so I have now replaced it with the 194-B-90: blue 90 degree it is a lower wattage bulb and not as bright. The part numbers are off the receipt when I bought them in 2017, and 2019. I had to search around their site a while to fine the ones I wanted. People have used blue and white for the background also.

Remove the windshield, then the instrument cluster. The bulbs are removable from the back. Test the lighting before you bolt the instruments back in, some led only work if installed the correct way. If it doesn't work remove the bulb turn 180 and reinstall.

174-GHP: Green
$1.95​
4194-G5: Green
$3.49​
3194-G4-90: Green Wide
$2.59​
1194-B4-90: Blue Wide
$2.59​
1194-R4-90: Red Wide

2194-B-90: Blue 90 Degree
$0.99​
 
Pretty certain there was a thread on the forum about doing this, cuz i used the info to swap out mine before i got my 2010 c14 in 2015.
 
I used led bulbs from superbrightleds.com The background lighting is green 4 ea 194-g5: green bulbs. The clock is the (1) 74-ghp: green. The indicators are the 194-g4 in green, blue, and red. I found that the high beam indicator was too bright with 194-b4-90 so I have now replaced it with the 194-B-90: blue 90 degree it is a lower wattage bulb and not as bright. The part numbers are off the receipt when I bought them in 2017, and 2019. I had to search around their site a while to fine the ones I wanted. People have used blue and white for the background also.

Remove the windshield, then the instrument cluster. The bulbs are removable from the back. Test the lighting before you bolt the instruments back in, some led only work if installed the correct way. If it doesn't work remove the bulb turn 180 and reinstall.

174-GHP: Green
$1.95​
4194-G5: Green
$3.49​
3194-G4-90: Green Wide
$2.59​
1194-B4-90: Blue Wide
$2.59​
1194-R4-90: Red Wide

2194-B-90: Blue 90 Degree
$0.99​
Thanks. Will update with results. Stay safe
 
Exactly as posted. Have done 3 C10's using superbright stuff. IMO....green background is user friendly. You can get a brighter led for the clock. Only change I made after the first time was toning down the hi beam bulb. Very bright and I don't remember which bulb used. Good improvement for the dash at night.
 
Attached image of my dash. The clock doesn't look green but it is readable in the dark. Much better than the original bulb. The high beam is the lower wattage bulb.C-10 dash.jpg
 
I tried earlier generation LEDs in the instruments, and wasn't impressed; took them out.

But from my maint log:

197537 05/01/19 Replaced the Wagner 17037 clock bulb with a Superbrightled 74-NWHP LED cross. Clock face illumination is 110% better, making the clock actually usable after dark.

I've got pix, but can't find them right now.
 
Swapping out the factory lights for green LEDs continues to garner compliments - it's not like I'm riding the boulevard every night but folks that see the instrument panel lit up green are very impressed.
 
I tried earlier generation LEDs in the instruments, and wasn't impressed; took them out.

But from my maint log:

197537 05/01/19 Replaced the Wagner 17037 clock bulb with a Superbrightled 74-NWHP LED cross. Clock face illumination is 110% better, making the clock actually usable after dark.

I've got pix, but can't find them right now.
FINALLY, found it:

dash-X2.jpg
 
Thx. Is replacement easy or will i need to find details on YouTube. Stay safe

Not sure to whom this is directed, but if you’re a contortionist with small hands to replace the clock bulb:
  • Remove the RH inner fairing panel
  • Work your hand up in behind the clock and pop out the (rubber) bulb socket. This can be difficult. or hard. They tend to take a “set” once in place. Exerting a twisting motion as you pull downward usually works.

Or

  • Pull the shield
  • Pull both inner fairing panels
  • Separate the two plugs going up to the clock
  • Remove the instrument cluster shroud

This makes it easy to replace the clock bulb, but it also makes it easier to remove the instrument cluster so you can replace all the bulbs if you choose.

Overly simplistic instructions, but gives you a general idea of what needs to be done. Not really hard, just a little time consuming if you’ve never done it before.

Can't answer the YouTube question; never looked.

Have fun...............

Another pix showing the back of the instrument shroud and rear of the clock. Bulb socket on left:
IMG_4797-X2.jpg
 
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Thx. I have removed all the fairings so many times I could probably do it drunk. Have to wait till sober to put it back togeather. Thanks
 
I used Super Bright 194-NWHP5: Natural White for the instruments and find I still have problems reading the trip odometers. I will have to look into finding a brighter alternative. My Pixel 5a photographs better than I can see. If I could see with the naked eye what the camera captures I would be very happy.

LED Instrument Lights.jpg
 
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I used Super Bright 194-NWHP5: Natural White for the instruments and find I still have problems reading the trip odometers. I will have to look into finding a brighter alternative.
How do they compare to the stock 158 incandescents? That's all that I've ever had in my 600, and I've never felt they've been inadequate.
 
How does the brightness and color of the tail/brake compare to normal incandescent? I got some "super bright" Sylvania 1157 LEDs from a local store, and they were under helming. Hardly brighter, and in white, they look more pink behind the red lens.
 
How does the brightness and color of the tail/brake compare to normal incandescent? I got some "super bright" Sylvania 1157 LEDs from a local store, and they were under helming. Hardly brighter, and in white, they look more pink behind the red lens.
Easily twice as bright. Distracting, actually.

😎

-x01660
 
How does the brightness and color of the tail/brake compare to normal incandescent? I got some "super bright" Sylvania 1157 LEDs from a local store, and they were under helming. Hardly brighter, and in white, they look more pink behind the red lens.
I'm not impressed with Sylvania anymore. They talk big but aren't so good at delivering. IIRC, they got in a bit of a legal pinch over that.
 
When I did the tail and front signal lights on my 99 c-10 I used bulbs from WEST COAST CLASSIC COUGAR. The ones I had got from the local Auto parts store didn't have enough difference between running and brake light. Watch their videos. They have 1157 style bulbs in both red (tail/brake) and amber(front running/signal). I have had them for 6 or 7 years now.The link is for the red and I looked it up just now.

 
When I did the tail and front signal lights on my 99 c-10 I used bulbs from WEST COAST CLASSIC COUGAR. The ones I had got from the local Auto parts store didn't have enough difference between running and brake light. Watch their videos. They have 1157 style bulbs in both red (tail/brake) and amber(front running/signal). I have had them for 6 or 7 years now.The link is for the red and I looked it up just now.

The OEM flasher was OK with these bulbs?
 
The OEM flasher was OK with these bulbs?
I replaced the signal bulbs, and all the dash lights at the same time. So I replaced the flasher too. Everything was apart. I don't know if you would get hyper flash or not. I think you might as they sell a flasher also.
 
I replaced the signal bulbs, and all the dash lights at the same time. So I replaced the flasher too. Everything was apart. I don't know if you would get hyper flash or not. I think you might as they sell a flasher also.
Yes, the stock flasher is a traditional flasher, so LED bulbs will cause it to flash quickly, unless the bulbs have integrated load resisters (which defeats half the advantage of LEDs, IMO). It's a standard 3-pin Japanese flasher, though (B-L-E terminals, for power, turn signal feed, and ground), so any electronic flasher with that pinout will work.
 
Short update on my bulbs. Turns out, my cluster has LEDs in everything except the clock (which was burned out), but half the indicators were dead. The backlighting looks good, and appears to be a white of some shade. I don't recognize the bulbs, but LED format changes so much. They look good, though.

Anyway, I got a 194-B-120 for the high beam, which I got and popped in today. It's perfect! Not too bright, and illuminates the entire lens uniformly. Just a hair brighter than a 158 incandescent, but more uniform. I got the brighter G ones for the turn signals, but am considering getting the 194-B-120 instead, as the bright ones are just seem too bright (I could see them being distracting at night).

I got a white 174 for the clock, which illuminates it well, but blue. Is the color of the LCD back panel blue, and the same regardless of the bulb color? I'm tempted to get blue bulbs for the backlighting to match. I could use these white ones on my 600.
 
Short update on my bulbs. Turns out, my cluster has LEDs in everything except the clock (which was burned out), but half the indicators were dead. The backlighting looks good, and appears to be a white of some shade. I don't recognize the bulbs, but LED format changes so much. They look good, though.

Anyway, I got a 194-B-120 for the high beam, which I got and popped in today. It's perfect! Not too bright, and illuminates the entire lens uniformly. Just a hair brighter than a 158 incandescent, but more uniform. I got the brighter G ones for the turn signals, but am considering getting the 194-B-120 instead, as the bright ones are just seem too bright (I could see them being distracting at night).

I got a white 174 for the clock, which illuminates it well, but blue. Is the color of the LCD back panel blue, and the same regardless of the bulb color? I'm tempted to get blue bulbs for the backlighting to match. I could use these white ones on my 600.

Don't get blue bulbs; they're too blue. I swapped out my blue bulbs for purple ones, and the lighting is much closer to white, with a slight purple tinge. I'll post photos, but they don't do it justice. Plus, blue activates your rods and ruins your night vision. Especially with the intensity.

But yeah. Careful with blue.

This is with blue:
20231209_193301.jpg


And this is with purple:

20231211_195534.jpg


-Zak
 
Don't get blue bulbs; they're too blue. I swapped out my blue bulbs for purple ones, and the lighting is much closer to white, with a slight purple tinge. I'll post photos, but they don't do it justice. Plus, blue activates your rods and ruins your night vision. Especially with the intensity.

But yeah. Careful with blue.

This is with blue:
View attachment 37555


And this is with purple:

View attachment 37556


-Zak
Thanks! I may leave them white, then. It looks pretty good.

Purple is tempting for my 600, though. It's got a lot of purple (profile pic)
 
Thanks! I may leave them white, then. It looks pretty good.

Purple is tempting for my 600, though. It's got a lot of purple (profile pic)
1000003605.jpg1000003606.jpg

This is on my 600, but here's a comparison between stock 158 bulb and the 194-B LED in the high beam indicator. I actually got both the 120 and 90 version, but I really can't tell a difference.

The neutral light is stock 158 in this photo.

I'm thinking I may get these in the colors for the other indicators instead of the brighter ones, except the oil pressure. I want that one to be bright and alarming.
 
So, interesting observation about LEDs in the turn signal indicators. I switched the front and rear turn signal bulbs to LEDs and an electronic flasher module. When I use an LED in the indicator, or have no bulb, the front running light glows brighter than it should, but when I use a standard 158 incandescent in the turn indicators, it works perfectly fine. I tried two different LED 1157s for the running/turn bulbs, and they both behave the same. These LED bulbs use the same emitters for both the running and turn illumination, so they just have circuitry that runs them brighter on turn mode (what would be the high-power filament).

My best current guess is that the threshold signal voltage for the high power is very low, and that with LED indicator bulbs, there is some induced voltage in the turn wire that partially triggers the brighter setting. When an incandescent 158 bulb is in the indicator, the small resistance is enough to ground out that induced voltage.

I might try some other LED 1157s to try and confirm this theory, but that's only going to make a difference if they use different high-power circuitry.

In the meantime, running 158s for the turn indicators seems like the easy solution. The power draw and heat generation is negligible, and they last for ages. The LEDs (that still worked) in the indicators were distractingly bright anyway. I may still run the LED indicators in the others, though, as they don't have circuits that appear to be affected by this phenomenon.

Otherwise, I like the LED bulbs in the turn and brake lights. The low power in the 1157 bulbs is a bit brighter than I'd prefer, though, as it dimishes the difference of the brake brightness, but the ones from superbrightleds are acceptable to my judgement.

Anyone else encounter anything like this?

PS, on my 600, I'm setting up the brake and running/turn to both use Skene modules, which will use the high-power light circuit for both low (tail or running) and high (brake or turn). It adds the "conspicuity flicker" for tail and running, and options for flashing brake. I did some quick mock-up on the tail this weekend, which worked pretty well. I just need to order some of the appropriate connector pieces so I can make plug-and-play harnesses to set it all up without modifying any stock wiring (have I mentioned I dislike Scotchlock and even posilocks?).

Bad photo of some Skene module testing below. The left bulb is the stock 1157 tail.
1000003617.jpg
 
My dash is in post 8. With West Coast Classic Cougar front signal bulbs in the front 1157, unknown led in the rear 1156 and the listed led indicators. The indicators flash high/low illumination, not on/off.
 
Update: I got a variety of bulbs and got what I think is a good setup in my dash. I'm using stock incandescent 158s for the turn signal indicators because they solve my LED running light/turn signal issues, but otherwise I would use the same 1-led green bulb as the neutral light.

It had some 4-LED bulbs in the indicators when I got it, but some were dead, and they were too bright and distracting. I generally went down to 1-LED bulbs that are comparable to the stock 158 incandescents except the oil light, which I wanted bright.

The backlighting in the main instruments are cool whites that were already in the bike when I got it, but they seem similar to the current 120deg 3-LED options. If I was using new ones, I'd use the bright white version of the glass style shown here at the end from my 600 (I ended up using the warm white in the 600, because it has yellow gauge faces and that looked better than cool white). It's 194-CWCOB1W. They provide more uniform lighting, as the chips face sideways, rather than the front, so they spread it around better. They're actually pretty close to the light throw of a 158 incandescent, just brighter. I could barely tell a difference between the Cool White and Natural White versions, and I think either would look great with the white gauge faces on the Connie.

Clock backlight: 74-WHP
Gauges backlight: 194-CWCOB1W (what I would use if the LEDs already there didn't work fine)
Turn indicators: 194-G-90 (what I would use if I didn't need the incandescent draw for the running/turn LED bulbs)
Low oil pressure indicator: 194-R3HP (I also tried 194-RCOB1W, which was pretty similar). I wanted something bright and glaring for this warning light.
High beam indicator: 194-B-90
Neutral indicator: 194-G-90

The photos below don't accurately capture the brightness difference in the indicators. The oil light really is noticeably brighter than the others, and the high beam is dimmer than the neutral or turn indicators. I think the factory lens on the high beam is more opaque than the other indicators so that it's not as bright in nighttime riding with the same 158s in all indicators. I notice the same thing in my 600.

1000004049.jpg

1000004048.jpg
1000004045.jpg
1000004046.jpg
1000004047.jpg
 
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I used led bulbs from superbrightleds.com The background lighting is green 4 ea 194-g5: green bulbs. The clock is the (1) 74-ghp: green. The indicators are the 194-g4 in green, blue, and red. I found that the high beam indicator was too bright with 194-b4-90 so I have now replaced it with the 194-B-90: blue 90 degree it is a lower wattage bulb and not as bright. The part numbers are off the receipt when I bought them in 2017, and 2019. I had to search around their site a while to fine the ones I wanted. People have used blue and white for the background also.

Remove the windshield, then the instrument cluster. The bulbs are removable from the back. Test the lighting before you bolt the instruments back in, some led only work if installed the correct way. If it doesn't work remove the bulb turn 180 and reinstall.

174-GHP: Green
$1.95​
4194-G5: Green
$3.49​
3194-G4-90: Green Wide
$2.59​
1194-B4-90: Blue Wide
$2.59​
1194-R4-90: Red Wide

2194-B-90: Blue 90 Degree
$0.99​
I seldom ride when it is dark out. Last fall I started a ride very early in the morning/predawn. Low and behold only one dash light was working, the tachometer.
I took the above shopping list to Super Brite, purchased them, and installed them, went perfectly.
Thanks Seth
 
This might be re-hashing something already posted, but I just discovered it and figured I'd share. According to the parts lists (on both Partzilla and CMSNL), the stock backlight bulbs for the instrument panel are 1.7watt, while those for the indicators are 3.4 watt (158 bulbs). I had assumed they were all 3.4 watt 158 bulbs (which my 600 is, and is confirmed by the parts lists). This would explain disappointment in the dimness of the stock backlighting. My bike had LEDs for the backlighting when I bought it, so I don't have a comparison.
 
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