dash surgery 1990-91 crown vic (DUW)

[1990LTD]

LEDs = way brighter

[1990LTD]

night time

http://www.grandmarq.net/vb/showthre...309#post508309

[marquisman]

i meant a cluster from a '90-'91 merc lol

[91waggin]

Wow you definitely did this the hard way.
The cable coming down from the speedo to the shifter has a loop that slips over a little lever on the shifter. Just pull it off with a pair of needle nose.

Then, tilt the wheel down, pull the cluster forward, and reach around the back. There are two wiring harnesses that go into the back of the cluster. Each one has little connectors that if you squeeze the sides of them, they'll unplug as a whole from the cluster. Then pull the whole fucker out.

Lol @ silly canadian speedo that goes to 200.

[85crownHPP]

all LED 194 replacements

[91grandmarquis]

Do you mind me asking what you got for LEDs, just any replacement 194s or is there a brand you recommend, I really am looking forward to this.

[85crownHPP]

There are at least a dozen different styles of them on ebay, no way to tell who has better quality ones. They are all probably coming from the same place in hong kong anyway.

The style Ive got in mine have gotten pretty damn affordable and work well as you can see.
This is the best deal i could find - 10 of them for $18 shipped. You need EIGHT of them just for the back-lighting of a 90-91 style cluster!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/10x-1...item27af355fe6



The crazy new ones rage anywhere from $5 to $30 for a pair. Being used inside an instrument cluster Id say most of them would be overkill... some will definitely work a lot better, and could even be too bright.
90-91 clusters use light collectors made of an optic plastic to pull light from right in front of the bulbs and spread it through the face.
I bet you could even get away with using the even cheaper, even older, bullet shaped and very directional bulbs in those clusters. I bet you could find them for less than a buck each... the same ones you can buy at autozone for $12 a pair.
89 and older clusters are the opposite - they NEED the best side emitting style bulbs they can get because the light has to get all the way out and around the instruments to light them up.

[91grandmarquis]

Yeah I just want my display brighter, Im thinking im going to order 20, I need to do under the dash and the climate control, 40 bucks isn't too bad, and ill have extra. Thanks.

[91grandmarquis]

Just thought about it and I only payed 50 for the speedo, ahah oh well it is SO worth it.

[1990LTD]

There are at least a dozen different styles of them on ebay, no way to tell who has better quality ones. They are all probably coming from the same place in hong kong anyway.

The style Ive got in mine have gotten pretty damn affordable and work well as you can see.
This is the best deal i could find - 10 of them for $18 shipped. You need EIGHT of them just for the back-lighting of a 90-91 style cluster!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/10x-1...item27af355fe6



The crazy new ones rage anywhere from $5 to $30 for a pair. Being used inside an instrument cluster Id say most of them would be overkill... some will definitely work a lot better, and could even be too bright.
90-91 clusters use light collectors made of an optic plastic to pull light from right in front of the bulbs and spread it through the face.
I bet you could even get away with using the even cheaper, even older, bullet shaped and very directional bulbs in those clusters. I bet you could find them for less than a buck each... the same ones you can buy at autozone for $12 a pair.
89 and older clusters are the opposite - they NEED the best side emitting style bulbs they can get because the light has to get all the way out and around the instruments to light them up.

I tried the bullet ones when I had mine apart, I bought a lot of 10 out of curiosity....wish I took a pic of that. One or two of them could work as unidirectional bulbs but mixing and matching wouldn't look the best, as the bullet ones I got are darker than the 5-ways. I have them in my blinkers.

[91grandmarquis]

Paypal is fucking up, I hate ebay so much sometimes.

[1990LTD]

So, the bulbs I got shit the bed on me again. I bought some of the bullet-shaped unidirectional ones and they actually don't look half bad...it's obvious where the bulb is in the center but like I said, not half bad. Not too bright and definitely not dim.


The 5 bulb LEDs were dying one bulb at a time, and the ones that had dead bulbs (two or three were ok) were dimmer on all the rest of the ones actually lit. I took the cluster out of the car, unscrewed and tightened all of the twist-in sockets to make sure it wasn't a bad connection or something, but they were all the same. Fucked.

[85crownHPP]

egads...! that really sucks. What eBay seller have you been getting those from? I wanna make sure i don't get any from that guy.... lol

Do you have any kind of voltmeter you can check your charging voltage with? You might be over-charging slightly, I doubt they are protected from that.

[1990LTD]

Been from totally different sellers every time actually haha

I have a multimeter but it's put back together now so I can't really check it at this time

Can I just stick the prongs of the multimeter on the +/- in the socket when the lights are on?

[87gtVIC]

socket of the bulb? YES But make sure the prongs are not touching while you are doing that or you will blow the meters fuse and possibly the fuse for the headlights.