DrJeff
03-19-2013, 10:47 PM
This has been a long time coming (as have a few of my concurrent projects now) but I finally got the installation of the Dimmable LED instrument illumination done. I love the LED lights in the dash (the slightly blue-ish white ones give a more modern look), however I really prefer to have the dash lights dimmable if I'm out driving around at night. So I fitted a PWM (pulse width modulation) unit [sounds fancier than it is] in place of the rheostat.
Here's a video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpU-RoBB7zo. The beeping is the GM Chimer unit in replacement for the Dying Goat Buzzer (but that's another story).
The most difficult part was that the PWM unit needed a dedicated circuit to the illumination bulbs, no problem on the +12v wire (red-white wire coming from the rheostat), however the D's dash illumination bulbs share their ground connection with other instruments. So I fitted a dedicated ground-return wire from each of the illumination bulbs and bypassed the stock ground connections. I got it done in such a way that it can be returned to stock.
17534
Here's a video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpU-RoBB7zo. The beeping is the GM Chimer unit in replacement for the Dying Goat Buzzer (but that's another story).
The most difficult part was that the PWM unit needed a dedicated circuit to the illumination bulbs, no problem on the +12v wire (red-white wire coming from the rheostat), however the D's dash illumination bulbs share their ground connection with other instruments. So I fitted a dedicated ground-return wire from each of the illumination bulbs and bypassed the stock ground connections. I got it done in such a way that it can be returned to stock.
17534