Dash lights not shining through

[Chronicle]

Hey guys!

I just reinstalled my instrument cluster with a fresh printed circuit because I had no lights before. Now I have warning lights, the light switch, the odometer, and can see other bulbs are illuminated from the back, but no other lights are shining through. Turn signals and bright/dim aren't working, either, but all exterior lights work. We replaced all the bulbs so we know the bulbs are fine. We just aren't getting any lights to shine through on the clock, speedo, and fuel gauge. Why won't they light up? We installed a new plastic gauge cluster housing from OPGI, by the way. Any ideas?

[cny first gen 71]

I'll assume you know that the circuit board is grounded? There is another thread with this on it. 

[Scott S.]

Hey Joshua, 

Just a thought.... Is there a protective tape on anything ?

Also, the "factory" illumination isn't very bright, so if you're looking at them in a well lite condition, they may be hard to see.

Just a couple thoughts. 

Welcome to FGMCC.

Scott.

[Chronicle]

Yep! We have the grounds on and we turned the shop lights off. Like I said, we can see the lights are illuminated but they aren’t shining through. Should there be a gap between the plastic housing and the metal housing to let the light through, by chance?

[1970mcss]

Did you install LED bulbs?? When I did mine the LED bulb didn't work in some sockets. I had to turn the bulb 180 degrees to get the to illuminate. Do you have a picture of the gap?? I don't think you should have any gap

[MC-71]

Change your headlight switch

[Chronicle]

Just going with the old incandescent 194’s, but I did try some LED’s I had lying around. They light up too (as per the pics), but can’t see anything on my instruments. There isn’t any gap as of now, but I didn’t know if there should be in order to let the light in the sides of the gauges. My current headlight switch seems to be working fine but I certainly could try a new one.

[Marks71]

It would seem to me that if the lights can be seen illuminating from  the back of the dash, then one of the issues could be with the new OPGI housing. Do you still have the old one to compare with? I realize that this means pulling the gauge cluster back out 🤮, but I can’t think of another alternative.

[Scott S.]

I'm thinking gap, or maybe plugs/excess plastic in the bezels.... You shouldn't be able to see that much light from the back. 

 

[1970mcss]

The cluster to me looks like it's not set correctly.  The metal and plastic doesn't seem to be seated correctly. I'll look for a picture of mine out of the car.

[70SS396]

On 11/10/2024 at 7:12 PM, Chronicle said:

Hey guys!

I just reinstalled my instrument cluster with a fresh printed circuit because I had no lights before. Now I have warning lights, the light switch, the odometer, and can see other bulbs are illuminated from the back, but no other lights are shining through. Turn signals and bright/dim aren't working, either, but all exterior lights work. We replaced all the bulbs so we know the bulbs are fine. We just aren't getting any lights to shine through on the clock, speedo, and fuel gauge. Why won't they light up? We installed a new plastic gauge cluster housing from OPGI, by the way. Any ideas?

There is a specific ground conection from the printed circuit to the metal can.

Follow the circuit for the turnsignal lamps from your old printed circuit to locate which screw provides the grounding point. If your new PC is in the car, that screw is accessible from the top with a 5/16 open end wrench.

Sometimes the mylar is covering some of the space needed for the screw to make a solid connection to the can.