Dashboard Lights

[Hamish Coutts]

Morning all,

I'm currently doing a bit of Spring cleaning on my late +2.

I thought I would clean the interior lights of the instruments in the dash as they have always been a bit dim at night particularly the fuel gauge speedo and rev counter.
The speedo's not inportant but I want to see the other gauges better at night.

When I took out the lamps they looked original and were spotlessly clean so it wasn't the usual buildup of dust that was causing the lack of light problem. The lamps all test ok.
The earth also looks OK and the battery & charging circuit are fine. The volt meter is normal when the engine is running.

That leaves voltage and lamp wattage.

1. Does anyone know what the voltage should be at the lamp socket. Is there some kind of voltage regulator in the circuit that I have missed?
2. What wattage should the instrument lamps be?

Bit of a puzzle this one.

Any thoughts you may have much appreciated.

Hamish.
:angry:

[john.p.clegg]

Hamish
I would expect 12.5v (approx) engine off to 15v (approx) engine running,they are not fed off the voltage reg. that supplies the three guages so that just leaves the wattage?
John

[Sarah Ryan]

On my sprint the original globes were 2 watts & provided little in the way of instrument lumination. I replaced them with readly available 4 watts. This has little or no effect on the wiring system.

[niallf]

I've just fitted 5w lamps in my guages, and they are definitely bright enough. The other thing I did was dismantle and carefully clean the guage displays with some Autoglym leather cleaner and a cotton bud and re-paint the guage needles with some day glow orange paint.

I also experimented with LED wedge bulbs, these were definitely not bright enough.

Good Luck,

Niall.

[1964 S1]

Greetings, I too have attempted to brighten my gauges to no avail. I've decided they were always dim and it's the modern new car gauge lighting that makes the Lotus (and all older Brit cars?) seem dark...

[Hamish Coutts]

Thanks folks
I now have a bit of motivation to grovle about behind the dashboard again not a pleasant prospect. Lotus wiring is scarey.
(nearly said guys but I notice we have a lady present. Welcome Sarah, nice to get a bit of balance in the forum! Keep posting).