Guage cluster bulbs

[Cabreco]

I'm thinking of replacing all the guage cluster bulbs in my 81 to LED like I did on mt Yamaha. 2 questions before I take stuff apart.

I count 9 bulbs
2 Tach illumination
2 Speedo illumination
2 turn indicators
1 high beam indicator
1 oil indicator
1 neutral indicator

1. What is the bulb # that is used? (in my Yamaha they were 168/194)
2. How do I get to them? (Do I remove the screws on the face of the cluster & pull it off)
3. Any "be careful with..." warnings?

Thanks

[Hellbilly429]

Pull the screws out of the top, remove the tach and speedo cable from the bottom, also remove the 2 nuts from the bottom. It makes the process easier if you take off the headlight bucket so you can drop the bottom part of the enclosure off easier. There are 3 nuts (if I remember correctly) that hold the inner unit onto the mounting bracket, remove those and the whole unit will come up off the mounting bracket so you can get at all of the bulbs. The bulbs are held in with rubber gromets, if they don't come out easily by just pulling (which they probably wont) your best bet is to get a small flathead screwdriver and pry all the way around the gromets while pulling them out so that you do not tear the rubber.

I don't recall if you have to separate the 3 different units inside in order to get at the bulbs, but if you do they are held together by some very tiny screws, and there are some small gears and I believe a spring between the left side unit and the middle one, so when you separate those 2 be very careful not to lose those pieces!

Pulling it apart is a lot easier than putting it back together, be sure to mark the positions of the wires under the unit as they will expand the bottom half of the case and make it very difficult to put the unit back together if they are not put back in place.

I am telling you all of this from memory, so if I left something out or if something I said was incorrect I apologize!

Good Luck!

[Cabreco]

Hellbilly429 wrote

I am telling you all of this from memory, so if I left something out or if something I said was incorrect I apologize!
Good Luck!

Ugh!
Man Hellbilly, after reading this I don't think I want to touch it! <lol>
BTW the bulbs according to the shop manual are SAE57 or B9 bulbs right?
But w/o seeing them I find two versions:

                        THIS                             or THIS

[Hellbilly429]

It's the this, not the or this, lol. If you use the taller bulbs you will have a hard time getting them to fit as well, so the shorter ones are best. It sounds worse than it is really, I was trying to be as detailed as possible.

[riedling]

its 10 bulbs... you forgot the one thats at the odometer :)

I also changed my bulbs out last week, and used LEDs... They are very bright, even in the sun, and save a little amperage...

send me a msg if you are interested, all 10 cost me about $30.

[riedling]

also, you can change all the bulbs without taking apart the entire cluster.. just the two nuts that mount it to the headlight bucket, the bulbs are in little rubber boots that press into the places you are talking about.  The only exception is the turn signal indicators, they press into the cluster itself...

take off those two nuts, and take a look.. easy to put back if you feel uncomfortable.

[Cabreco]

Well since it is not cut & dry, I will put it on the back burner for now. (maybe during downtime) Fiona is rarely used at night & she has nothing extra sucking juice from the charging system.

My Yamaha Cruiser was actually super easy. I swapped out 22 bulbs to LED. Big reduction in power consumption.

[sgtslag]

The bulbs consume less than 5 (2?) Watts, each, so around 50 (20?) Watts, total, in the cluster.  If you want to swap them out for LED's, go ahead, but it is money, and time, for relatively little gain.

According to my Clymer, the instruments are filled with "dampening fluid", which may leak, if you leave them turned face down, for too long.  Just repeating what Clymer states.  When I swapped mine out, several years ago, the bulbs were inexpensive (<$1 each), and the hardest part was pulling the cluster, and guessing how to disassemble it, without damaging it.  Once done, life was good.  The original bulbs lasted 29 years, and roughly 12,000 miles; the new bulbs were solid, at three years, and 10,000 miles (sold it a few weeks ago).  Cheers!

[Cabreco]

sgtslag wrote

The bulbs consume less than 5 (2?) Watts, each, so around 50 (20?) Watts, total, in the cluster.  If you want to swap them out for LED's, go ahead, but it is money, and time, for relatively little gain.

The OEM bulbs each draw 3w, LED in comparison draw 1/4w.  You'd be surprised how reducing 27.5w will alleviate these crappy charging systems. Considering the dash bulbs are lit most of the time, by swapping JUST the 10 dash (3w ea) 2 front signals (8w dim)& the tail light (8w dim) total 54w (with LED 11.25W) you save 42.75w
A standard 1157 bulb has a 5 to 8 watt dim element and about a 21 watt bright element. An aftermarket 1157 LED bulb is 3 watts total

Now add the weak Honda charging system at a traffic light with your brake light filament on and you have an extra 21w total of 75w draw vs 11.25w on LED. & this is not counting the 55 w (65w high beam) that your head light is drawing, now you are at 130w unless you have a directional going which will add 2 21w double filaments for a total of 172w sitting at a red light waiting to make a left turn. (HID headlights draw 35w)

LED will greatly reduce the drain on the charging system allowing you to run aux lights or other accessories easy.

On my heavy cruiser it made sense. In addition to the above a had a plethora of marker lights & bling lights running as well Radio, CB, GPS, driving lights  etc... so converting to LED actually has me charging the battery at idle, plus they are a LOT brighter.
I spent a lot of time researching.