zavaral

I tried searching and had no luck.
I converted all of my instrument lights to LED and now everything flashes. They worked for about a day like they were supposed to and then this happened. They flash too fast to even see the numbers. I built my own LED bulbs and retrofitted them in the stock bulb holders (I used correct resistors). I thought it was the dimmer went to the local junk yard, they didn't have the assembly with auto lights so I took the circuit board with the same rheostat, soldered it on and still not working. I have a pretty good knowledge of electronics and soldering so that's good.

I also did a set for a buddy's 2005 Explorer and his worked out great. And my truck is a 1997 scab.

2000MTZ

iTrader: (1)

Why not just get replacement plug in LEDs? They're brighter and disperse light better

zavaral

Cause with labor these were about 50 cents a peice.

2000MTZ

iTrader: (1)

Well if you have good solder joints and right resistors I don't know what to tell ya

zavaral

They worked fine. All the other ones I did ( check engine, 4x4 etc) work as advertised just not the illumination and dimmerable lights.

2000MTZ

iTrader: (1)

Have you checked to see if they are getting constant power on the circuit board?

zavaral

I actually did not. I assumed since the dimmer rheostat controls them that was my problem

2000MTZ

iTrader: (1)

I'd take a few reading with a multimeter to see where you stand, then we can possibly narrow down your problem

Warspite

First, please turn that "auto lamp" switch OFF. That blanked out my whole panel, LED or not. Next, it sounds like you're getting less than 12V at the panel, since the resistors drop the voltage to 1.5, which is all that's needed to fire the LED. With less than 12V at the panel, those LEDs may be getting 1.1 or so, and can barely fire. Since I onlt did the backlighting on my '98, the whole cost was about $35 for the cluster and temp panel, so it didn't pay to do it as DIY.

zavaral

The autolamp is turned off, it still doesn't work. And the resistors are on the each individual light not as a whole. The way I did the resistors also was running them at their recommended voltage. Some were 5V some were 3.5V. The exact same set up I used is the same set up I used in that Explorer and it still works perfectly.