I’m reassembling the dash gauges on my 72 GS and all the lights are too dim, especially the brake and gen lights. When I turn up the headlight switch knob to brighten the gauges, it starts to brighten a bit then goes completely off. I installed an original used headlight switch and the voltage regulator is new. I’m not sure if that could be a faulty headlight switch.
I have seen that happen on cars of various makes, when they get old, and and it is aggravating. I am not good at electrical stuff, but I think the knob is a rheostat, so when you turn it left or right it increases or decreases the juice to the bulbs. When that rheostat gets worn out or maybe dirty, some of the conductive lines quit working, so turning the knob jumps from live to dead places, and it goes from dim to bright, and maybe jumps from bright to nothing. You could try spraying an appropriate chemical on it to clean dirt off, otherwise you might need to replace it.
Yes, contact cleaner on the back where the coil bit is in a circle. Then scrub the knob across it's whole range while the cleaner is still wet. If that doesn't help, a new headlight switch should get it.
Just be advised that if the bulbs are original, they're usually silvered and dim. Put a set of new 168's in there and the dash will be bright as can be
Yeah, that wasn't important to me at all. I'm sure they do make dim-able ones. When I put dimmmable 194 LED bulbs in google, I got these, https://www.superbrightleds.com/cat...le,Yes,38,1198:Stock_Bulb_Number,194,197,8902:
Hey Larry, I want those bulbs but I'm not excited about the work involved tearing into the dash and putting it back together. Any chance you'd come out to my place to do the install?
