Hi Dave hear with yet another XJS question.

I want to replace the bubs that light the dash clocks as mine are so dim they might as well be off! Does anyone have a recommendation of what bulbs to use?

 

The easiest thing is to replace the OEM 2 watt push fit bulbs with 5 watt ones. You have to pull out the instrument cluster, but once out you pull out the black bulb holders, change the bulbs, push them back in and you are done.

There are, INSIDE the cluster, green 'pods' over the bulbs. These blacken with age and go practically light-proof. If the 5 watts do not help much, then this is what has happened. To remove the pods you have to crack open the cluster by removing about 8 screws and pulling the white back of the pod off the front part.

As long as you put the cluster on a table with a white sheet or tablecloth below it to do the job, nothing will be lost! Ideally the best thing to do is do both things at the same time. Then you will find you can even turn down the dimmer a bit.

You can replace the bulbs completely with LEDs, but these are polarity sensitive so a bit of a pain to get right, plus fitting the LED into the holders can be a bit difficult. There is a long recent thread about how to do this.

Greg

 

with due respect Greg but doesn't the 5w create more heat and burn the holders, I haven't had any probs with led bulb myself regarding polarity,
having said that I suppose the warning lights aren't on for long,

 

Ok guys brilliant i will look for some LED bulbs and give it a shot. What bulbs am i looking for? What are they called?

 

[QUOTE=rgp;1092024Greg but doesn't the 5w create more heat and burn the holders, I haven't had any probs with led bulb myself regarding polarity,
having said that I suppose the warning lights aren't on for long,[/QUOTE]

RGP
I was meaning the main cluster illumination. These were originally 3 watt T10s and I replaced these with 5 watt T10s years ago when LEDs were not available. No heat problems at all. I actually still have the green bulb covers as I fitted new ones at the time with the 5 watts and they still OK with the 5 watts. The old covers were black, maybe an earlier plastic?

The warning light strip has T5s, as you know, and the T10s will not fit. These I have replaced with LEDs, the biggest I could force in there, as they are easy to reorientate if the polarity is wrong.

Greg

 

I cant help you there as I don't have a stock instrument set up, but theres a lot of older posts about it

 

All my dash lights were replaced with blue LED's about a year ago. LED's are available in both T5 and T10. I had to remove the green covers and the LED's only just fit.

If I was doing again I would use 5W bulbs not LED's.

 

As Warrjon said, these are the bulbs we are talking about (the drop down menu lists 5W and 3 w types). These are the ones for the main cluster, but also as Warrjon said, removing the green covers is important.

CAPLESS CLOCK INSTRUMENT BULB FOR TRIUMPHS T10 WEDGE 12v T2700210

Greg