Midnight Blue(s), does your high beam indicator work? Options

[chmillman]

So, while I had the steering wheel off to fix the ignition switch, I thought it would be the perfect time to fix the other problem I had - the high beam indicator light wasn't working.

Previously I was able to pull the gauge panel partially out with the steering wheel still on, in doing so I was able to replace the existing dash lighting tungsten bulbs with LED's - but I could never get the bulb for the brights indicator out - it was stuck in place and impossible to remove in that position.

So finally with the steering wheel off, I disconnected the various wires and pulled the whole tach gauge out. Then, on the bench, I was finally able to gradually work the brights indicator lamp holder out of the socket in the gauge. Mine is a '74, but it actually has a '73 or earlier tach, with the individual left/right turn signal arrows at the top (which I much prefer over the later version) and the brights indicator at the bottom.

I pulled the existing bulb out and tested it... and it worked. I was like huh? Why am I not seeing it light up in the gauge? So then I held the gauge up to the light and looked into the socket hole to see if I could see anything. Nothing. Then I tried holding the soocket side against a really strong light and looked from the front - and then I dimly saw some blue light...

So I surmise that over 50 years, the blue plastic has simply aged and gotten darker, to the point where it's almost opaque.

Nothing I can do about that short of having the gauge rebuilt - which it doesn't need, the tach works perfectly, as do the turn signal indicators. I put in the brightest front-facing BA7 LED's I have been able to find - the right one in the image below. I have one of these already in the green parking lights indicator on the speedo and it's almost too bright.



Now I can kinda sorta see a faint blue glow if I'm driving the car in the dead of night with the high beams on. During the day though, it's still invisible. So if you think yours is not working, it might be the same as mine.

[Montreal914]

Early 74 had silver button gauges which would make the tach like the 73 with separate blinkers. Maybe this is your case and your speedometer was replaced? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif)

[Ron914]

Early 74 had silver button gauges which would make the tach like the 73 with separate blinkers. Maybe this is your case and your speedometer was replaced? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif)

I just replaced my rear tail lights with new led's from Spokeworks and have to change my flasher relay because I have the single turn indicator lamp . I thought about as you mentioned replacing the tach with the older style but then I have a new problem as the gauge needle dots won't match , mine are all black and the older gauges are silver .

[Spoke]

I thought about as you mentioned replacing the tach with the older style but then I have a new problem as the gauge needle dots won't match , mine are all black and the older gauges are silver .

Ron, I did the early tach into a '74 so I could have individual turnsignal indicators. I popped off the chrome dot and black center needles with a small fork and put the black center needle on the early tach.

Here's my thread on changing the tach bodies on my '74 914.

Spoke's '74 914