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LED lit gauges
Ok so I said to myself, " those Jetta gauges look sick lit up", and ever since I've been thinking about doing that to my Supa/914. Since I haven't seen any plug and play, LED lights for early 911/914 or 944 gauges yet (I know they exist cause BillK is sporting some). I decide to make my own, originaly I wan going to break the original bulb and solder on the led to the filimant wire. Quickly decided to go a different route. On the 944 gauges the sockets were very easy to stuff the diodes into, and after it was all said and done it looked like a professional install, no soldering, but some 5 min epoxy for potting is required.
Now the 911/14 gauges are another story, the socket is not having it, I got it to work but it looked like crap, and I don't think it will survive very long. I did a lil brain storming and figured out the sockets for the early 944 speedo and tach work in the 911/914 gauges, just need to add a piece or two of electrical tape because the hole size is a hair bigger on the 11/14. So I am now on the lookout for more sockets.
Finally, if you are still reading this you probally are asking how they turned out. I used the high intensity Blue LED's, and on the 911/14 gauges it looked awesome, almost as good as the newer Jetta's. I am very impressed. Now the blue LED's don't quite look right on the yellow marked 944 guages. I'm going to get some red and green, and maybe yellow LED's tommorrow and continue the experiment. If all else fails some white faces will fix it.
Nick
PS before you attemp this at home, make sure you don't over current the LED's or they will smoke, and at $2.50 USD a pop that can get expensive. If you don't know electronics IM me and i'll do the math for you. The equation is basically
Circuit voltage-voltage drop(depends on LED and how many are connected together) then divide that number by how many mA they can handle and the answer is how much resistance you'll need to add to the circuit.
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