Gauge lamp intensity

I have a set of VS Repro (Brazilian) gauges in my CMC, and I've never thought that they were especially bright at night. I have them running through the original VW switch with a rheostat to dim them, but have the "dimmer" turned all the way up and STILL they're only sorta bright at night.

I checked the voltage at the bulbs and they're getting just a shade under 12 volts (like 11.85) and the bulbs are Phillips 12629

The Tach is the only one I really need, and the right side is OK, while the left side is about half to two-thirds as bright.

Any help?

Thanks in advance......

Gordon

One of the "Speedstah Guys in the Dark" in Beaufort

My Replica guages are the same. They are hard to see at night. (Impossible in the daytime because of the pale colors).
I think it's because the face of the guage, blocks the light. It's too close to the glass.
Short of taking them apart just to verify (or fix) them, I bought some 6 volt bulbs. Now the guages are useable at night.
The 6 volt bulbs probably won't last as long as 12 volt bulbs, but I rembered back when... We used to convert old bugs from 6 volt to 12 volt. The dash bulbs rarely got changed in the conversion process and they worked OK.
So 6 volt bulbs is one answer.
I got them at www.cip1.com.

Greg B

Greg:

What the heck.....it's worth a try, you can turn them down via the headlight knob and they're a pretty cheap fix.

Thanks!

Gordon
One of the "Enlightened Speedstah Guys" preparing for the trek North from Beaufort |>(

Gord; I have Chinese "repro of repro 356 gauges" such as JPS and VS are cranking out (I don't think you can get Brazilian VDO's anymore) and they look fine at night. Have you checked why one of them lights up fine? Is the voltage the same in all three?

Let us know your results Gordo.

Ricardo:

The Multi-gauge is OK, while the Speedo is pretty dark all around, and the tach is darker on the left side, where you would want it lighter......I'll try Greg's advice and get 6V bulbs - they're cheap!

Will do, Justin!

gn

12v into a 6v bulb will surely imitate Lucas electrics ...poof with a wisp of acrid smoke!

I believe you can find these bulbs in various wattage. That woudl solve your problem.

Gord if the tach is darker on the left side, could it be that the bulb closer to that side is gone? Also check for good ground and all around connection. Sometimes less than ideal conductivity leads to instances such as this one.

Gordon,
Did you try the 6v? Did you resolve your lighting problem. My dash lights are also very dim. If you come up with something, please post, I'll have to try it.
Joe

Joe:

Been busy with house projects and other stuff, so I haven't gotten to them yet........I'll try calling around this afternoon and see if I can find either some 6V bulbs, or 12V with higher wattage in the local area and pop them in tonight.

gn

I couldn't find alternate wattage (brighter) 12v bulbs.
I got the 6v bulbs from www.cip1.com.

Greg B

Greg,
do you have the part number of the bulbs from CIP
Troy

Greg,
Ditto Troy.

Gordon,
No hurry. It was 13 degrees here this morning. The garage is awful cold! Just keep us informed. It will eventually warm up here. Joe.

Hi Guys!

Garage was a crisp 58 degrees this afternoon, but we had a LOT of yard debris from the wind storm here a couple of days ago, so I ended up doing that all afternoon. We have a number pf huge palms in the yard and they tend to drop a lot of fronds which are usually 2 feet across!!

I tried a couple of parts stores around here and, so far, no one has replacement bulbs for early VW's of any type (they usually start with the 1974 models with MUCH different bulbs. I'll get some from CIP-1 or mid-america after I get back up North in a week or so and try those.

Not looking forward to going back to snow and ice, but it can't be helped.........NEXT season, we're heading South early and returning North late, like we're supposed to do it!

gn

Gordon,

Task a couple of bulbs from your gauges along with you. Tell the parts store they are VDO bulbs and you might find them, I'm not sure they are classified as vintage VW bulbs. I was able to find different wattages. You have the repro gauges CMC sold, right?

That was my next approach - to take one along and see what they've got - that's what my trusted parts store (not Autozone or Advanced, but a mom and pop) wanted me to do, too.

My gauges are from Vintage. I never bought the ones from CMC...

gn

I just scored some 6v dash lights. I'll try them over the weekend and let you know how they work.
Troy