[Mr Magic Fingers]

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Hi Everyone,

I have just upgraded my instrument cluster to LEDs for the backlighting. Also, for the idiot lights I used LEDs too. Like mentioned in this post, the FUEL, and 2 cruise lights come on and stay on when LED's are used. See post 24 and 25 from this link... http://www.goldwingfacts.com/forums/forum4/112151-2.html .

Has anyone found a fix for this or know why it is happening? I currently have the front end off the bike replacing the instrument cluster and speakers. I want to know if there is a fix for this before I have to go back to the old bulbs and button everything up.

Tim.

 

[Mr Magic Fingers]

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BINGO!!

You wouldn't bore me at all. I have those resistors right here I would think. I didn't think those circuits were that "load" sensitive.

Thanks GS!

Tim.

 

[Mr Magic Fingers]

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I agree. The dash has to come off to get at things. Ain't nothing delicate and dainty about my hands!!! Who needs a catchers mit!!

I have things tore apart to mount new speakers and I can remove the dash in 2 seconds.

 

[Mr Magic Fingers]

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I think to do it right, I will put the resistors on the back of the connectors that are on the dash.



Tim.

 

[Mr Magic Fingers]

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I did things a little different when I added my LED's to the dash.

I kept the high beam as a incandescent bulb. I didn't want the brightness to be too much at night. I also kept the signal light indicators in bulb form. They don't get used much so they don't get dark and burn out very often. Also, the two smaller bulbs that light up the LCD panel I did not convert either. It's hard to get a good LED that small that is multi directional enough to light up what it should in there.

The rest I used LEDs for.

What I did different was to use Natural White LEDs. I cut an empty white vitamin container open and cut white circles of plastic and used a smidgen of clear silicone to fix them to the LED clusters. The Natural White gives the same effect as a florescent light backlighting the dash. The extra plastic softens up the light and diffuses it a bit so there are no bright spot on the gauges. I am real anal about that.

Of course I have washed everything down and cleaned it up before starting the work. I made sure the white plastic of the dash was as clean as possible.

Here is one of the LED clusters with one of its "caps" on...

 

[Mr Magic Fingers]

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Here is the dash with power and no front bezel on. You can see the white is really "WHITE" compared to the "YELLOW" of the two incandescent bulbs above and below the LCD panel.

No tripod here guys... sorry about the blurriness. Had to hold the camera by hand.

 

[Mr Magic Fingers]

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With the bezel...

 

[Mr Magic Fingers]

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The vitamin bottle...

 

[Mr Magic Fingers]

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I'll post back with the results of the Resistors and how I installed them. Probably a few pictures too! hahaha



Tim.

 

[Mr Magic Fingers]

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Hey GS,

My garage door remote is wire tied to a relay and that relay is powered by an ACC circuit. That way the only time it can be activated is when the key is in the ignition of the bike. A little extra security.

I used an old trunk opener switch from an old GM car we had long ago because it had a neat icon on it. Hahahaha

I cannibalize everything electronic. I mounted the switch, along with others where my CB use to be. CB was removed and I will sell it later - useless junk as far as I am concerned.

Anyhow... looks like this now...

Tim.

 

[Mr Magic Fingers]

Hey guys,

I know this is an old thread but I just wanted to update it with some new info I've come across.

In rebuilding a KLR 650 for my son, there is nothing I am not touching from the license plate holder to the front fender and everything in between.

One of the things I got crossed off my list was to clean the instrument cluster - on the inside. Both the tachometer and the speedometer had quite a bit of dust on their faces so I ripped it all apart and started cleaning. I love cleaning and detailing.

I was going to replace the cluster lights with LED as it was quite dim with only 1 of the 3 lights working. Being on a budget with this rebuild, LEDs were not a necessity. I had some new bulbs here anyway that I could put in so I replaced all 3 of them, put it back together and when I finally got it back on the bike I found out one of the new bulbs were not working... a damaged filament. I knew Jeremy really wanted LEDs.

I routed around in my electronics parts boxes and found I had a strip of red LEDs that was exactly the length I needed! It turned out better than any of the LED "bulb" replacements I have seen. There are no hotspots in this cluster now. It is bright in all light conditions except direct sunlight which is what you would expect. The light is very even and it cost me nothing to make this change.

The LED change can be done on ours like this too. I'd use a strip of white LEDs for our bike though. Our dash has a little bit of color in it while Jeremys is basically all orange. One really nice thing about this is that you would not need to make something up to diffuse the LED light. Bouncing the LED light off the walls of the cluster would automatically eliminate the hotspots.

I simply routed the wiring to the connector and spliced it in so this unit is self contained and no new connectors are needed. I have not seen anyone else do this with led light strips.

The pictures are a little blurry as I did not use a tripod and the light conditions were low with no flash. I can tell you that in "real life" this cluster is bright and clear. I kept the "Neutral", "Turn" and "High Beam" lights incandescent as they were. The neutral bulb is only on for a minute or so at a time, replacing the signal light indicator with LEDs has issues you have to account for and the high beam indicator is way too bright for night time use with an LED in there. Way to distracting.

Tim