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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - LED Dash bulbs..Experiences?

Hi,

Anyone here who has fitted LED dash bulbs and have any reviews?

1: Is it a direct replacement, No modification with realays or anything?
2: Are they safe, do they get hot, melt or anything?
3. How's the light?

Thanks
Ales

Alexander Sorby Wigstrom

I put LEDs in my dash lights

It depends on what you want to do.

I wanted colored lights instead of the typical white light so I got red LEDs in 12 volt from radio shack, and it made a nice red glow in the cars cock pit

I got the LEDs with its own housing and just added a few laps of electrical tape around the base to give a tight fit into the gauge bulb holders... as to the wires I just clipped and soldered and ran a ground wire to all the bulbs

The price was okay,

The main draw back... LEDs or at least the style I was using are not very bright in fact very low light

My suspicion is LEDs are very bright and intense as a direct form of light like a scaple but poor as a form of broad wide explosive form of light, and my guess is with the type of gauges we use we need a broad wide area flood kind of light that encompasses our gauges

If anything, id google aftermarket LED dashlights and see whats avilable and its uses

Prop
Prop and the Blackhole Midget

I got the direct replacement ones that have the same end fitting. I initially went with red too however found the light outpost too low to be of effective use. I don't know whether this was due to the toe of led I used (cluster of 5 on the end), my eyes advising to the 'red' or the effect of the green lens inside the speedo and tach. I changed to ones with white output and more dispersement, the type with 5 panels on the end, 1 facing in each direction.
These are much better than the original bulbs, brighter light,low heat and low power use and no extra wiring required.
Highly recommended.
S Travis

it sounds like S. And I have had a similar experiance...
I left mine in place and never got back around to not exploring it further




Prop and the Blackhole Midget

Alright, Thanks. That's about the info I needed.
Alexander Sorby Wigstrom

Prop - thanks for posting the happy-snap. That looks good, I'm gonna go for that!
RS Hughes

Hey rs

This is what the lights are attached to during the day light

I do like the red glow look, but I wish the light was brighter

Prop


Prop and the Blackhole Midget

Prop that looks so good! I'd definitely crash if I had so much stuff to look at inside the car!
RS Hughes

I use LED lights which are a straightforward replacement.But I also took the fronts off the dials, and using a dremel carefully increased the size of the light gaps as much as I could, leaving small spaces (otherwise the face would fall off!) where the light is designated to go through to the front, around the edge of the fascia. I also took out the plastic cover around the edge that some dials have. They are a lot brighter now.
Geoff Mears

Dear me Prop - just what are you measuring?

Jeremy
Jeremy Tickle

Prop,
what are the two that don't light up, or better still can you list all of them to enlighten us








did you see what I dun there - (sorry very low quality but I couldn't resist)
Nigel Atkins

Prop, are you required to stay in contact with air traffic control at road level in your state?

For gauges with internal lighting, the 5led bulbs are fine. The single LEDs with a colored band to indicate colour are OK (just) for warning lights behind jewels. For gauges with an external lighting (early fuel gauges etc) I make up a shroud to fit onto the gauge clamp, and use LED strips which glue to the shroud. This reduces light glare into the footwell but keeps the gauges nice and bright. You only need to light with three or four LEDs on the strip at the top of the gauge, then it is bright enough without any upward facing lights to dazzle the driver.
dominic clancy

It does look cool, but you should see the scary rats nest on the back side

Btw... most of it is not hooked up...YET

TOP left to right...
Vacume / boost gauge 1 , on a vacume splitter 2 for one reading at a push of a button

AFR gauge 1 "front carb"

exhaust temp guage that has 8 sensors on a dial switch to measure each of thr 4 spark plug temp, and the exhause temp of each of the 4 cylinders

AFR gauge 2, back carb

Vac / boost gauge 2, same set up as #1

Bottom left to right

Water temp

Oil pressure

Volts

Amp

Oil temp

On the dash

Rev, speedo, fuel amount, clock (the clock will be replaced with fuel pressure)

On the smart phone, I have a full suit of (or did have) dyno stuff that measures g force, various speeds, and turning forces ect.


On the 2 vac gauges they are actually 4 because of the push button splitters...I was wanting to measure the vac in each carb to each gauge then push a button and measure the engine vac on one gauge and push a botton on the other gauge and measure the vac in the intake manifold or the catch tank...but the sensitivity of the gauges is not in scale, so im rethinking what I can remeasure...my new thought is the body areodynamics at various locations

Prop
Prop
Prop and the Blackhole Midget

The case is the radio consel... it took the entire winter to build about 3 years ago...i thought it would take about 2-3 part time weekends...I had the outside coated in rino truckbed linner to match the dash appearance, its mostly for vanity but I love it, it gets lots of attention

And yes ive almost ran off the road more times then I care to admit this past year looking at all the readings

Lets face it, in a parking lit solo2, race its very important to know the temp of #3 spark plug and how much vac you pulling on the front carb during a 3G hard turn to the left around the red cone...even if the solo run is only 25 sec long, how else would you know if your engine is sucking oil costing you valubale horse power....hahaha

Prop
Prop and the Blackhole Midget

Inside the car... sorry for the mess when this photo was taken... I almost never have the car looking this bad, just to much going on

Also on the section where the radio used to go, that will eventually be filled with some 70s era factory (ford/chevy/???) toggle switches ...mmm 7 of em?

I use my smart phone as the cars radio. It plugs into a small amp that powers a huge amp in the boot that rocks out the 6x9s speakers in the back shelf....the great thing about the phone as a radio, it easily unplugs and goes into my pocket when ever I get out of the car at walmart, and I used generic non name grills over my expensive speakers, the amps are secured in the boot away from eye sight...so nothing for theives to be interested in stealing

Prop


Prop and the Blackhole Midget

Sorry nigel...

I forgot to mention ... the reason that both AFR gauges are not lighted, is because when the head lamps are lit, the light intensity of the flashing light show of the AFR gauges gets cut in half ... so I left them unlighted to watch the gauge flash from red, to yellow, to green and back and forth

The sensor for the AFR gauges are installed on my header the front down and the rear down...if both gauges show the same reading then im fairly confidant that the center 2 cylinders are also in senq... eventually I will cross the 2 gauges on a switch to read the a 3rd sensor in the center down pipe...

Hope that made sence

Prop
Prop and the Blackhole Midget

thanks, as usually perfect sence from you :)

when I had a BGT the heated rear window warning light on the gear tunnel console had a white lens cover and was so bright that it was very distracting when driving

as the heated rear window element didn't seem to work that well I wondered if the warning bulb was was that powerful to provide some heat help clear the rear window
Nigel Atkins

I used them on the indicator pilot lights and found they are slightly brighter than tungsten bulbs which was exactly what I wanted.
Daniel Stapleton

This thread was discussed between 23/02/2015 and 27/02/2015

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

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