With the final testing of the wiring behind the dash panel complete and the new LED bulbs (which arrived today) installed, it was time to screw home the panel and finally loose sight of “grannies knitting”. A major milestone for me. I suspect it will be off again at some point though….

After I’d completed the wiring for the dash lights (and had the courage to turn the key) nothing actually worked…. but nothing caught fire 🙂

In these older vehicles it is possible to switch the dashboard lights on and off. (anyone know why a civilian vehicle would require this?) It turned out that both of the brass terminals on the switch were heavily corroded and needed a clean up. 5 mins to remove the switch and wiring. 5 mins to clean the terminals with some emery cloth. 5 mins to refit and hey presto…. LIGHT 🙂

The 3 warning lights, high beam warning lamp and indicator tell-tale also got the LED treatment. Its worth noting that LEDs are polarity sensitive. With a positive earth vehicle the “lead” terminal on the end of the LED bulb must be connected to earth. The other way round and it will not work.

With little battery left on my phone I didn’t take many pictures of this one.

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The old 2.2 watt incandescent bulbs are replaced by modern LEDs.
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Dash panel back in place
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Nice crisp light from the new LEDs (fuel gauge doesn’t work though)