RS Motorsport :: Classic Speed Restored

I'm looking to replace the dash light bulbs in the Ghia with either some hihger wattage or LED bulbs. Does anyone know the technical name for the bulbs? I gather standard are 3W wedge type, but there appears to be some sizing guidelines like T5, T8, T10 etc which I don't understand. If anyone has replaced theirs with LED's have you got a part number or description?

Be careful with LEDs, they can be overpowering. Every time I go for high beam in the F100 I have to shield my eyes from the pilot light.

This might shed some light on the sizings:

Thanks Scott.

But the Esky dash has a bulb 10mm wide by 20mm long, and they only list a 10 x 26mm. Does anyone know if the larger bulb will fit?

Nev, I'm pretty sure work sells these spade type bulbs in 5w, or you could just do what I did and drill a 3'16 hole in the end of each of the blue covers to let a bit more light through. Worked well from memory without loosing all of the blue light effect, plus let some of the heat out so the bulbs stopped blackening themselves which also dulled them.

That's a great idea Darren - thanks. Might try that first before buying some 5W bulbs.

soldered some leds on a piece of double sided pcb

Nev

To fox the age old MK2 problem of CRAP dash lights i removed the blue plastic things altogether and replaced the globes with 5w new ones and put the coloured silicon globe sleeves on them to get the colour right again. Narva do the silicon sleeves in several different colours, red, orange, green, blue, yellow ... I used green so the dash illumination still looks factory.

Now you can actually use the dash dimmer switch without the dash light dissapearing on the low setting.

Those blue things are the problem. The plastic is way too dense for the light to get through!

G

where is the dash dimmer switch? i didnt realise that the escort even had one?

Are you talking about the early Xa Falcon/Tc Cortina light switch Gdub?

Pulled the dash out of the Ghia on the weekend, took out the blue things and replaced them with some VDO green novelty condom thingys that came with my VDO gauges and.........Presto!! I can read the dash at night again. Can almost read it on the Dim setting also!!

How about that Gary ... Its easy to see why those stupid blue things dont let any light through!

G

As an update, I went for the 5W bulbs with holes drilled in the little blue covers. Seems OK but I've not got the rest of the car back together to try it at night yet.

Should have it complete again after this weekend.