Dash Light Dimmer Switch

Ime with you on that one, not on the road for now rebuilding but anyway agree very dim light on instruments I find as you turn the adjuster it dims and brightens and flickers I asume through bad connections even at full brightness mine has beeen pretty dim to say the least.
Mine is 400GT 1977 would be good to hear if someone has a result for both of us!
Regards
Alastair

 

Ken,
I've toyed w/the idea of just bypassing the switch to eliminate it out of the circuit for starters. I just haven't had the time to do it, I also got replacement bulbs of a higher wattage I think but it's been so long I can't remember what the stock ones are & what replacements I bought.
Bruce

 

I wonder if there is a LED substitute?

 

This issue has been discussed in dozens of threads in the 308 forum at great length and great success. I hope that this is of sime help. Jacques

 

Thank you Jacques!
It looks like we allhave the same problem. Mine's a Series 1, but I get the same result.
Doesn't seem to be a problem in summer, but the days are so short this time of year, specially in the UK!

 

The switch is totally useless as it only has two positions, dim and off. Being able to ratchet down to pretty dim, then really dim, then nearly off and finally off just doesn't have that much value to me.

And yes, my 400i dashlights are pretty dim! The only time that I could adjust the "brightness" (Ha!) was in total darkness as with any ambient light at all it was almost impossible to see at what point the brightest (er, least dim) was.

 

If I recall, there is a post in the (Ithink) Dino section a couple of years back, where an owner R&R'ed the dimmer by simply cleaning it completely, with only marginal results. He finally just bi-passed it, as the previous poster suggested, with much better result. This is so simple to do and instantly reversable. He unhooked the two wires, one from each end of the coil (black and yellow) and twisted them together, thus completing the curcuit, thus foregoing all resistance in the crcuit,after all that's all the reostat in this case is(a resistior coil, nothing more, nothing less). Just a thought: you might even install an in-line fuse, if only to asuage your apprehensions. I hope this helps. Jacques.

 

Ken, let us know how effective the bypass works, it seems there were mixed results in the dimmer bypass as well as the bulb change-out which pushed them to the LED solution.
Bruce

 

Did you bypass the dimmer yet??

 

That's great news, Ken...will be doing mine @ end of the month. Bruce

 

I had thought about changing out the wire wound dimmer for one of these.

http://store.qkits.com/moreinfo.cfm/MX033

I'm not sure of how well the thing will tolerate the 12v input fluctuating.

 

All this talk of poor Dash lights reminds me of the time I took my Mondial for its first long run to Le Mans 24 from Liverpool. Driving down the M6 motorway at night with a torch sticking out of my mouth to see the guages!!