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More Rheostat questions

G Guest
I've read the rheostat posts and have similar issues to what must be every other Pantera Owner,...dim dash lights. I replaced all the bulbs with higher output bulbs,...made very little difference. I was thinking about using LEDs but found the LED wouldn't work,...the voltage is too low. My rheostat goes from 6 volts to 0. Battery voltage is 12.7 ish. (6V is too low for the LED). This brings up a question,...what voltage should a healthy rheostat have? 12 to 0 or what? I'm sure that jumpering around the rheostat would yield brighter lights (6v doesn't make a 12V bulb glow very bright) but I'd like to have the functionality, to keep heat under control...I considered 6v bulbs but they are basically impossible to find in the right sizes.
has anyone used a rheostat from some other commonly available source with any success?
TomcatDoc
#05139
China Lake, Ca
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davidbdavidbMember
I've tried everything also to get more brightness. It isn't really to amount of power or the bulbs. Even newer white gauges with brighter bulbs are still dull, though a big improvement. I think that it is that these are old school gauge designs that illuminate the basically opaque dial by throwing light around the outside perimeter of the dial, unlike newer gauges which illuminate a more transparent dial from behind. Anyone else agree with this? Or is there a real solution.

Anyhow, the brighter the dial, the more reflection off the windshield! Confused

And there's no fix for that!
timsterentimsterenMember
Hi,
I had the same problem and after surfing around a bit found a number of references pointing to the best solution being to add two extra lights in the back of the speedo and rev counter, see for example here ( http://www.spacecitypanteras.c...ing_Tech-Session.htm ). So I pulled them both out of the car, carefully dismantled them and then it is very easy to see where there is space to drill two extra holes to take two bulb holders. I also did an extra thing and used a silver paint pen and painted the inside canted edge of the black 'reflector' to help reflect more light out. These modifications made an enormous difference, and solved my problems.
Cheers, Tim.
bosswrenchbosswrenchMember
Johnny Woods in England is in the midst of redoing a Mangusta dash for a club member, and he not only bored TWO holes in each gauge for extra bulbs, he also disassembled the gauges and added chrome tape inside the cases to reflect more light. Then he made before-and-after photos, and his mods seem to work. Removing the bezels is not the easiest job in the car, but its an effective low cost mod. And with the bezels off, its easier to see where the extra holes should be.
T Tomcatdoc (Guest)
All great suggestions,...however,...what is the correct output from the rheostat? If I get 12V (or at least more than 6V) I can get the two floods above the guages to glow more brightly,...currently they are just getting 6V and are very dim,...those two lights glowing more brightly would be a major improvement,...more lumens from the internal gauge lights wouldn't hurt either
midenginemikemidenginemike#3482 Grabber Blue 72 393 stroker CHI heads
The best way to get more light in the small gauges is to open them up and trim the edge of the face itself. Once you get in there you will see why they wont get very bright. Trim 1/16" off the edge of the face. I replaced the bulbs with LED's from Advance, nothing special. With the cool running LED they dont fog up near as much as they used to. On the tach and speedo, I trimmed the face and added 2 more bulbs in the 9 and 3 oclock positions. Works for me......Mike
bosswrenchbosswrenchMember
One other small problem: the Italian rheostats are often broken- no output at all. Fortunately, most can be fixed at home without even being disassembled. Inside, there is a hair-fine wire that takes 100% of the load out to the lights, and vibration/corrosion/age cracks it. But on the backside are two unused copper stub-contacts. By soldering an insulated jumper across them, magically the 'trons can get out to the lights again! You can easily check if this is your inop problem by holding a probe against the two stubs and seeing if your system then works.
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