VicCrownVic's 1991 Mercury Grand Marquis GS

[VicCrownVic]

I don't mind the blue but I can see that they could be too bright for most people.
If there is no need to mess with the filtering on the 97- cluster I would imagine that it wouldn't be as ultra bright as my 2000 P71 cluster with no filtering. With blue LEDs the stock 91 cluster in my car was nowhere near as bright as the P71 cluster. That's because the filtering was unaltered on the 91 cluster. The blue LEDs couldn't even shine through without removing the filter material from the P71 cluster. Although my P71 cluster had two layers of filtering stuff, a yellow and a green layer. If I was able to remove just the yellow and leave the green the blue LEDs might have worked and not been so bright, but after going through the green a couple of times I gave up on that idea.

[88Vic]

Blue is the worst color for gauge lights, makes the most glare and takes your eyes longer to adjust from looking at them at night. Red is the best on your eyes, should be a mandatory feature in all cars to have red lights, at the very least a switch so you can use red lights if desired. I don't know why you'd want anything else, red looks great and I personally like the least amount of stress on my eyes.

[Shayenne]

I hate red lights! I would never buy a car with red lights, I'd rather buy a horse and buggy if red lights were mandatory. They hurt my eyes.
I like blue or green. Blue is my first choice though.

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[VicCrownVic]

I would like red but I went with blue since my interior is blue.

[DerekTheGreat]

Blue is the worst color for gauge lights, makes the most glare and takes your eyes longer to adjust from looking at them at night. Red is the best on your eyes, should be a mandatory feature in all cars to have red lights, at the very least a switch so you can use red lights if desired. I don't know why you'd want anything else, red looks great and I personally like the least amount of stress on my eyes.

I hate red lights! I would never buy a car with red lights, I'd rather buy a horse and buggy if red lights were mandatory. They hurt my eyes.
I like blue or green. Blue is my first choice though.

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What I've heard amongst the people in the OEM biz green is the most eye friendly color and red is the most irritating and requires the most adjustment time from your eyes. I'm personally not a fan of green since every car seems to be that way. I really dig the orangy/red of my Fireturd and prefer that for sports cars and whatnot. I used to hate the green but ever since I started driving Fords I've grown to tolerate it. On a somewhat related note, on long overnight drives with few streetlights and whatnot you can take some of the strain off your eyes by dimming your interior lights so that they're just barely visible, this is also where green vs red comes into play.

[VicCrownVic]

What I've heard amongst the people in the OEM biz green is the most eye friendly color and red is the most irritating and requires the most adjustment time from your eyes. I'm personally not a fan of green since every car seems to be that way. I really dig the orangy/red of my Fireturd and prefer that for sports cars and whatnot. I used to hate the green but ever since I started driving Fords I've grown to tolerate it. On a somewhat related note, on long overnight drives with few streetlights and whatnot you can take some of the strain off your eyes by dimming your interior lights so that they're just barely visible, this is also where green vs red comes into play.

That goes against what I've learned about how eyes respond to different wavelengths of light. What 88Vic said matches what I've learned about eyes and how red light should not cause your eyes to need to readjust night vision. I don't remember all the specifics such as rods and cones and which does what but I do remember the part about the red light and night vision (or low light vision). Based on what I see in vehicle instrumentation I would have to agree that the OEM world must have came to the conclusion of green being the best option and that they have done studies and know much more about the topic than what I do with my limited knowledge.

Really the main reason I got into the LED thing with my cluster is because the stock 91 cluster illumination was the most terrible illumination I've ever seen. In certain light conditions, like when it was not quite dark outside but there was not enough sunlight to see the cluster without lights on, it was just way too dark and all the bulbs were good. I never had any issues with stock lighting on my 89 or any of my older boxes, they all lit up the cluster sufficiently for my liking.

[gadget73]

the human eye is most sensitive to green light. red won't mess with your night vision though. Instruments on ships are always red lit for that reason. Unfortunately its also not very visible so you can't take a quick gander at the gauges and know what they read without looking for longer than would be preferred. I'd assume thats why the stock color is in the green realm.

[slack]

as long as you can stand it. I took my blue lights out, it was hurting my eyes too much. I'm back to stock lamps for now, waiting on some warm white LEDs to come in. I'm hoping to retain the stock green color.

This is exactly what I did. After a while the LED was TOO bright at night and I found it distracting.

[DerekTheGreat]

That goes against what I've learned about how eyes respond to different wavelengths of light. What 88Vic said matches what I've learned about eyes and how red light should not cause your eyes to need to readjust night vision. I don't remember all the specifics such as rods and cones and which does what but I do remember the part about the red light and night vision (or low light vision). Based on what I see in vehicle instrumentation I would have to agree that the OEM world must have came to the conclusion of green being the best option and that they have done studies and know much more about the topic than what I do with my limited knowledge.

Really the main reason I got into the LED thing with my cluster is because the stock 91 cluster illumination was the most terrible illumination I've ever seen. In certain light conditions, like when it was not quite dark outside but there was not enough sunlight to see the cluster without lights on, it was just way too dark and all the bulbs were good. I never had any issues with stock lighting on my 89 or any of my older boxes, they all lit up the cluster sufficiently for my liking.

Some people find the red to be irritating, I'm guessing more than some. I never realized red doesn't affect night vision but those nights when you can't sleep and you stare at the alarm clock yet no eye strain now make sense. I'm guessing that's also why if your car has illumination other than red you can dim the lights for better night vision when driving down roads that aren't lit. That does help but I like my stuff to be brightly illuminated so as a hipster millenial would say, "The struggle is real."

[88Vic]

If you've ever driven at night when it's cold and the engine isn't warm enough for defog, you'll see what I mean. You pull up to a red light and you can kinda see through your foggy windshield, but when it turns green it makes so much glare you can't see at all.

When I was younger and even more stupid, I would drive to work (middle of the night, no other cars) before the windshield had cleared. If a light was green I'd have to proceed literally blind until it was dark enough to see again. I bounced the tires on my old minivan off a median doing that. Now I'd never start driving until the windshield is clear.

[VicCrownVic]

More Mods!

Time to post my updates from last week. I already posted this stuff in the "What are you working on?" thread, but I'm finally putting it here so it's in the same place as the rest of my stuff.

Since I was off work all last week I had plenty of time to work on a couple of projects that had been waiting to get done for probably the past 6 months or so.


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| Ford Speed Dial
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The first one I tackled was the installation of my electronic speedometer corrector that I bought some time ago and never got around to installing. It's the Ford Racing Speed Dial which I believe I got mine from LateModelRestoration.com. It's marketed for 1994-2010 Mustang (1994 was the first year the mustang went to an electronically controlled speedometer, afaik). Panthers (with analog speedometer) went to electronic speedo in 1990. I believe earlier digidash panthers may also have an electronically controlled speedo, so this device might work for older digidash panthers. Anyway, since the Panther uses the same VSS as the 94 Mustang I figured if this device works for a 1994+ mustang it should work for a 1990+ panther. So I got it installed and so far it seems to be doing what it should.
Now you might be wondering why I didn't just get the correct VSS gear. Well, for my setup there is not a correct driven gear for the VSS. With my stock tire size, 2.73 axle ratio, and trans with a 7 tooth drive gear it was not possible to make the speedo correct even with the 16 tooth driven gear that I have.

Here is a picture of the Speed Dial which is currently mounted on my driver side inner fender.


And a couple of pictures of the inside of the black box.


The red LED stays on solid when you have power, and the green seems to be a status led (I think I came across what the LEDs indicate but can't seem to find it again). If you set the device to 0 0 0 the green LED will blink and your speedomter should read 45 MPH with the key on and not moving. (The instructions said 0 0 0 would generate 11.7MPH, but other online documentation said 45MPH which was correct for mine.) Once I confirmed that I was able to get a 45 MPH reading I changed my settings to 1 1 3, test drove, set to 1 1 2, test drove and left it at that. Today I had a chance to drive it by a few speed signs today and I actually saw an accurate reading when passing them.



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| 97 LTC EATC
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The second project I tackled was installing the EATC unit from a 1997 Lincoln Town Car in place of the stock 1991 MGM ATC unit. I seriously thought about not doing this because I knew it was going to be a pain, but since I had the time off from work I figured I'd go for it.
The bottom two screw holes on the unit are pretty close to correct. They need to be expanded toward the center of the unit a little (very little). There are also holes in the dash for the pegs on the back of the control unit mounting ears. Those holes in the dash need to be expanded as far out from the center of the control unit as possible. I also went slightly down with those holes but don't remember if that was necessary. Other than that, he cavity in the dash has no problem fitting the newer unit. The trim/bezel did need some trimming. The bottom edge was at the right height but the top and both sides needed to be moved slightly up and out about 1/8 inch or so. Also, the angle of this unit is slightly different than the stock 91 unit. I had to shim the top of the unit to make it the same angle but I now have the whole unit sticking out a hair too far. I'll address the fitment issue later, but for now it's good enough.

As far as electrical work goes, there was the work of figuring out what wire from the old unit needed to be wired to what wire on the stock harness. Also I installed the BDA and the Sun Load Sensor from the 97 TC. Ripping apart the dash to install the BDA was part of my hesitation to start this installation, but since I know my way around this dash pretty well I went for it anyway.
After a couple of days of trying to figure out my notes (which I hadn't looked at in months), some drilling, some trimming, a fair amount of soldering, and some cursing I finally got the project to the point of the only things left to do are minor details (which means they won't be addressed for some time).

For the vacuum lines all that was needed was to swap the same color line into the port of the new unit, I determined this after looking up the diagrams for both cars. I had to work the lines out of the vacuum connector that plugs into the back of the unit, which was a bit difficult since they are adhered to the connector. Then I cut the 91 lines (I didn't have the patience to work them out of the connector) and put them into the newer connector along with a little adhesive to keep them there.

I also swapped in the vacuum control solenoids from a 2003+ Panther just so I could have the peace of mind that the O-rings were good. I was told 97 shouldn't have that problem, but I still swapped to the newer assembly. The electrical connector was different so I had to rewire it to make that right, plus I had to drill two holes in the back of the unit for the new location of the screw holes for the 2003+ top cover.

Once I tried out the new unit for the first time I could hear vacuum pressure being vented each time I switched settings. At first I thought I had a leak but I realized it was holding all settings properly so it must not be a leak, just venting during mode switching.

Thanks to miamibob for pointing me in the direction of an excellent book with all the information I needed for the 97 LTC EATC unit. That was a huge part of making this mod a reality.

Pictures:
Right after install:

later that evening:

[sly]

Very nice.
now for a write up.

[DerekTheGreat]

If you've ever driven at night when it's cold and the engine isn't warm enough for defog, you'll see what I mean. You pull up to a red light and you can kinda see through your foggy windshield, but when it turns green it makes so much glare you can't see at all.

When I was younger and even more stupid, I would drive to work (middle of the night, no other cars) before the windshield had cleared. If a light was green I'd have to proceed literally blind until it was dark enough to see again. I bounced the tires on my old minivan off a median doing that. Now I'd never start driving until the windshield is clear.

You could always pull an Ace Ventura and stick your head out the window!

[DerekTheGreat]

Vic, that install looks great! It's as if that thing grew there!

[VicCrownVic]

Thanks Sly and Derek!

Still some minor details to take care of, like the bulb that I never put in to light the Max A/C and Norm A/C buttons. That kind of thing happens when you leave a project for months and come back assuming that part was all done, I didn't even realize until later that night when it was dark enough to see that those buttons weren't lit up.

As for a write up I'll gladly share any information for anyone wanting to do this swap (or any other modifications I've done), but if I take as much time to do a write up of this as I did the heater core replacement... yeah, I'll have that ready sometime next year. At least if I do get around to doing a write up, if it's anything like my heater core replacement write up there should be plenty of detail.