LED instrument lights

The instrument lights in my 75 Z1 are really dim. I could barely see the speedo in total darkness. I thought it was the bulbs so I replaced them with new ones and checked out my electrical system. The system checked out fine but they were still too dim.... So, I set out to find a better way to light them up and this is what they look like now. I replaced all 8 with LEDs from superbrightleds.com. It was a direct replacement and well worth the $36.71. IF anyone is interested, I can post the stock numbers.

Without LED's




WITH LED'S

Are the bulbs the older Bayonet(push and turn) or the newer wedge base type?

I used the same old style push and turn as the OEM (BA9S). They were a direct replacement. Ive seen some LED's that you are required to solder in resistors (?) for them to work but these already have the required parts internally. That company sells all sorts of bulbs with various fittings so they might have what your looking for.

Looks great. I have some ready to swap in myself. Did you just get white ones?

Thanks! I used 4 "Cool White" for the tach/speedo and for the idiot lights a 90deg red, amber, blue and green.

The bulbs are available on e-bay too. Just search for "BA9s led". I replace the bulbs on all my bikes with these LED's.

How much leds should bulbs have for idiot lights?
Would this bulb with 4 leds be to much...

...or I must go with 1 led bulb?

For tach/speedo I would buy this one with 5 leds.

Any advice is welcome.

It's hard to say as the LED's that I used are a different style.
The only idiot light that I had a hard time seeing was the blue
High beam indicator light. The LED made it bright enough to cast a
Blue glow over me in total darkness. It's almost too bright now.
With that in mind I would get the brightest LEDs for the speedo and tach
then figure out which idiot lights you have a hard time seeing and replace
those with the same LEDs as the tach/speedo. Replace the other idiot lights
with ones that are less bright. It might be a good idea to buy one of each LED
and experiment with them before you buy replacements for all of them.

What ever you do I hope to see some pics when you get then all replaced.

Yeah tach/speedo 5 leds work fine. For the idiot lights one led is enough, otherwise it might be blinding at night, particularly for the neutral light.

alwaysbroke wrote: It's hard to say as the LED's that I used are a different style.
The only idiot light that I had a hard time seeing was the blue
High beam indicator light. The LED made it bright enough to cast a
Blue glow over me in total darkness. It's almost too bright now.
With that in mind I would get the brightest LEDs for the speedo and tach
then figure out which idiot lights you have a hard time seeing and replace
those with the same LEDs as the tach/speedo. Replace the other idiot lights
with ones that are less bright. It might be a good idea to buy one of each LED
and experiment with them before you buy replacements for all of them.

What ever you do I hope to see some pics when you get then all replaced.

Hey alwaysbroke, do you have the actual bulb # that you used? I've heard some of them are too big/wont fit and dont want to get the wrong ones...

This is a copy of my invoice. If I were to order from him again I would add a less powerful blue LED for the high beam indicator. This one I ordered is stupid bright! Good luck and please feel free to ask any other ?'s you might have. Let me know if you get a dimmer high beam indicator lamp and how it worked out for you!

Thanks for the info! I'll let you know how it goes, hopefully I'll get around to this in the next few weeks.