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The instrument binnacle is not lit by fibre optics.
The heater controls, the gear selector and the lights switch are. Better Car Lighting have a much brighter option for the FO source which helps considerably. Some people have removed the back of the heater control graphics and installed actual LED strips there instead.
I'm in the process of pulling the good dash from my parts car. I'm getting ready to fix repair all the little issues, before I put it in my Jacobra. And I was looking intently at the fiber optic setup as the cables all lead back to a small cylinder near the shifter with a light bulb in it. How do they make it brighter? Higher wattage bulb? I'd sure like to fix it all / or improve it. Before I get it reinstalled! I mean it's such a wonderful job. NOT!
I'm in the process of pulling the good dash from my parts car. I'm getting ready to fix repair all the little issues, before I put it in my Jacobra. And I was looking intently at the fiber optic setup as the cables all lead back to a small cylinder near the shifter with a light bulb in it. How do they make it brighter? Higher wattage bulb? I'd sure like to fix it all / or improve it. Before I get it reinstalled! I mean it's such a wonderful job. NOT!
I am an electrician and installed glass fiber optics in the old days when you had to hand cut the glass fiber terminate and hand polish the glass ends. I went through and polished all of the ends of the fibers. To polish the ends you need a smooth piece of glass very fine water type sandpaper 12,000 grit wet sand the ends in a figure 8 motion approximately eight times, dry and wipe with a microfiber cloth and a little glass cleaner (see attached picture).
Black surfaces absorbs light. In the black housing I used a silver reflective tape the type used on mechanical duct work to seal air leaks at the duct joints. I installed an LED lamp that would fit the existing socket (BAS9s base) the lamp put-out is 90 lumens, 1.2 watts.You can not calculate the light output based on wattage like an incandescent lamp.You need to look at the lumens. Colored lamps do not produce as many lumens. The glass lens has extra holes in the output side for additional fiber cables. I enclosed the black rubber housing around the fiber termination on the output side of the glass lens to keep the light from escaping through the spare holes for additional fiber terminations with aluminum foil. All of this had great output from the fiber but still less than I wanted to illuminate the devices. I changed the LED lamp to a 105 lumen output. To add this lamp the base had to be changed from the original base for the new bulb. The new base is the same style as the original base. The hole in the end of the plastic silver lamp holder was too small for the new base so I enlarge the hole a little and snapped in the new base and lamp (see attached picture). This puts out enough light to see the instruments. One of the plastic fibers broke off going to the cooling indicator. I will need to splice the fiber or replace the fiber. I may replace the the lighting source, install larger fiber and reduce the termination connector to fit inside the instruments.
I get most all of my LEDs and other material from SuperBrightLEDs.com. I have part numbers for the LEDs I changed. I don't know if anyone has changed the original BA7s"peanut" lamp between the push buttons on the dashboard, the part number is BA7s-w-CAR, cool white 5 lumens 100* $.99. each. The lamp come in other colors but the lumens are much lower. I have changed out all of the dashboard lamps, instrument cluster and added a couple additional green LEDs, changed the center console (cigar, gear shifter, fiber optics driver) lamps. As you all know the inside of the old jaguars are very dark and hard to see the controls etc. I have changed the courtesy lamps in the back to red to match the Burberry leather, added lamps and switches in the center console storage compartment and the glove box. I am currently installing a new plastic fiber optic lighting system, in the door panels on the backside of the door pulls, around the inside the speakers, and around the door locks and handle, I added LTD strip lights under the knee bolster (to avoid dark spots) to illuminate the foot wells of the driver's and passenger's. LED strip lights are spaced out for wiring connections, save cost, color changing. When purchasing LED strip lights look at the spacing between the LEDs to limit bright and dark spots. The cheaper light strips will have a greater spacing between LEDs. To avoid dark spots from LED striplights they must be hiden far away from what you are lighting or install an opaque plastic lens. When the car door is opened all of the original courtesy and door lights will come on and when the door is closed the door lights turn off and the courtesy (map lights) lights will turn off after 10 seconds. I have found that It may be difficult to locate and install the key in the ignition in 10 seconds. I am currently adding all of the new LED lights including the dashboard, instrument cluster, center console, and radio lights to come on when the door is opened and stay on for 20 seconds or more with the adjustable time delay off relay to get settled in and when leaving the car. The lights will stay on and the radio will come on when the key is inserted into the ignition switch and will remain on while the car is running. The new LED trim lights are programable for any color and dimming from a cell phone. I will send photos when the lighting is completed. If you have any questions feel free to send a private message. I am looking for a forum group to join that have Classic Jaguars or around the Pacific Northwest.
Jack,
I am not sure which lamp you are referring to. I purchased all of the LED lamp at SuperBrightLEDs.com. If you need assistance you can contact Terry at Superbrightleds "terry-m@superbrightleds.com" and he will find the product you need.They also have a lot of other material. I have purchased a portable battery operated 12v power supply, colored wire terminations, etc.
Attached are the specification and lamp description of two different lamps I tried. The first lamp I purchased had the brightest lumens that fit in the factory base BA9s. The lamp was a BA9s-CWHP5, 6100k color rendering (cool white) 90 lumens. You could purchase the same lamp in warm white with 96 lumens. I purchased the cool white to make the instrument diles stand out better. I still wanted more light output so I went to a 67-W15-2PK, 4500k color rendering (natural white) and had a light output of 105 lumens. With this new lamp the base had to be changed. It was a simple process. The base looks just like the original base just a little larger. Attached is a picture of the larger base installed. You probably will not notice the difference from the original base. The silver plastic housing lamp base diameter had to be enlarged a little, I used a standard step hole router used for electrical work, you can find it in any standard big box hardware store or an electrical wholesale house. You can purchase a new 1156 single pin lamp holder at a auto parts store, online or online or SuperBrightLEDs part # BA15s. Let me know if you all have any question regarding any of the lamps or the other LED systems I am installing.
Best regards,
Patrick New Lamp Base 1156 installed Hole Router
1st lamp order 1st lamp order spec. 2nd order spec. need new lamp base 105 lumens New LED installed 105 lumens
house.
Yep that's the little bugger right next to the shifter. I have hundreds of those std bulbs. They use them in the marker lights all over school buses, which is most of what I deal with, as I'm Transportation director for my local school. I just hadn't seen LED bulbs with the small base. all the ones I've seen that small base are the incandescent bulbs.
04-01-2023 | 03:24 AM
