Dim Guage lights Options

[Fyrmdk914]

Its me again with another question! The dash lights on my 75 1.8 are very dim, and I am using this car as a commuter. Once a week, I drive 120 miles to work, and back. About half freeway, and half swoopies and twisties through the southern california mountains. Yay! Back to my question, the guage lights in the speedo, tach, and fuel guages all work, however they are so dim that you cant really see the guages. Is it time to clean the connections, disassemble the guages and clean the lights, or replace the guages. I realize that each car is different, but what is the most common problem? Thanks...

[type47]

the knob turns to control brightness. i suspect that on a 30 yr old car, the coils on the light know develop a "hot spot" and may burn or corrode making a larger resistance and dimming the gauge lights or forcing the knob to be turned off the hot spot to a dimmer position on the rheostat. i made mine brighter by rotating the know and i suspect i cleaned the rheostat slightly. you could try cleaning the connections for the dim control or, as suggested, install a higher wattage bulb (if you can find them)