Instrument Light Bulb

[Darrell 240Z]

I have a 1971 240Z what is the bulb number for instrument lights for the oil pres. and water temp. gauge ?

[JimmyZ]

Here's an excellent thread on this. Perhaps you can kill two birds... (have brighter lights)

Enrique suggested sylvania 53's

http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1206&highlight=instrument+lights

[7277]

...you just need a 3.4W low profile replacement. you can get 4W low profile ones that fit correctly at the local auto parts store for $2 the 4W will be just a tad brighter. you may want to upgrade all of the bulbs in the dash if you have it all apart. you need about 10 of 'em...i forget

[Darrell 240Z]

Thank you for your help.

[SteveJ]

BA9 bulbs are the proper replacement. (At least I think they are.) I am thinking of trying these LED bulbs. Look for the wide angle bulbs. They appear to be low profile, too, only 6 mm above the socket.

[TomoHawk]

...you just need a 3.4W low profile replacement. you can get 4W low profile ones that fit correctly at the local auto parts store for $2 the 4W will be just a tad brighter.

How do you tell what the wattage is? They all just say 6V or12V, but there are some I saw that are 7V.

[Nissanman]

Just be a bit wary of using a higher wattage bulb, even a 4W over a 3.4W.

The extra heat generated may just be enough to trash the lenses in the instrument binnacles.

They will probably be very fragile after all these years.

Using LEDS will minimise this possibility and introduce a measure of robustness over an incandescent bulb.

http://www.narva.com.au/Globes_7.html

You can also get silicon rubber condoms to personalize your dash illumination.

http://www.narva.com.au/Globes_9.html

[TomoHawk]

Those little sleeves wouldn't even fit on the bulbs in my 280Z, because the bulbs don't stick in much- they're almost flush eith the metal case. The hols ie just big enough for the bulb, too. So I think I'd stick to the coloured dyes to coat the bulbs.

thxZ

[MEZZZ]

Those condoms look pretty cool..not a fan of them myself

Seriously, do you put them over the bulbs and take out the little green lenses?

I just got my overlay gauges from Speedhut yesterday. I went with the reverse indiglo where only the numbers light up at night. For 89.00 you cant beat them, they look to be of very high quality and they look great installed.

I looked into doing the LED conversion, painting the insides of the gauges bright white or silver. After looking into it and having to thread several bulbs together to get decent lighting I figured it easier just to do the overlays.

You can get them in alot of different colors, stock black with white digits that go light blue at night, or pick red digits. Go White faced , silver face, red face, dark blue face, you can pick font styles, etc.

I opted for a little something different, reverse indiglo, silver face with dark blue numbers, just to be a little different from stock and the white faced overlays.

[Curtis240Z]

BA9 bulbs are the proper replacement. (At least I think they are.) I am thinking of trying these LED bulbs. Look for the wide angle bulbs. They appear to be low profile, too, only 6 mm above the socket.

I tried this experiment and the light gain was marginal. Someone did this but also removed the green lense in the housing and the light output was MUCH better. I don't have the dash apart so I stopped the experiment.

I converted the big users of wattage to LED (all the exterior lights (except the headlights of course)) and the load on my system dropped dramatically.

[geoyam]

Be careful in using any BA9 base shaped bulb if you intend to use the stock green lenses in the gauges. Unless the bulb shape is a G3.5, any other bulb will be too long and rest against the lense eventually causing them to disintegrate from the heat.

The specs on the OEM bulbs were 24mm (.94") in length, bulb shape: G3.5, bulb base: BA9, volts: 14.4, watts: 3.4.

As mentioned before the Sylvania 53 is a close OEM replacement as is the Eiko A-72. Both bulbs are rated at 4 watts. Seems like no one manufactures 3.4 watt replacements in the proper bulb and base configuration.

Using the 4 watt replacements have increased the brightness of the gauges. They've been in my car for over a year without any visible damage to the stock green lenses.