I have done the same thing with mine although theyre not THAT bright, I just replaced my bulbs with the 4 led bulbs each, bought off ebay. They fit 4 LED's into a bulb casing that plugs right in to your original socket.

I lined the white plastic pockets with shiny metal foil tape. It seemed to make a significant difference in brightness without the ricer hyperwhite light look.

Wahoo!

My dash lights came back on after a mere 30-50 back and forth twists of the old nob. I read the thread today, and tonight I can see my oil pressure and temperature. (You can tell speed pretty well by sound.)
I was just going to tape/glue/velcro a little keychain led to the dash. Now, I don't have to.

Yeah, well, I spun mine till I was blue in the face...
tomorrow I am goona just put a wire in there... :(

Get a new Rheostat now becasue it IS going to go out again and next time it might be for good.

I just jumped the two contacts on the back of the rheostat rather than removing the rheostat and jumping the contact pins. That way I still had the adjustment knob there in the dash so it all looked stock. The rheostat pops right off, so you can take it inside to solder the wires in place, then just pop it right back in. Makes a world of difference with the dash lighting!

I agree with cscmc1 that soldering a jumper wire is the easiest because you can remove it to work on it. One detail point though, the rheostat will just pull off, but not until you unscrew the two phillips head screws holding it in place.

Good call... it's been a couple of years since I did that. Forgot about the screws (or maybe mine were just missing). That was in a '75 300D.

Tks,

Chris

I thought it was just one screw......................

You maybe right about that, it's been a while. I just didn't want someone trying to pry the rheostat out with a screwdriver without removing the screw(s) on back first. That wouldn't be pretty.

Recycled
 

for new members

I fixed a similar problem on my car, the problem wasn't the rheostat, but was with the connection going to it.
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/308524-intermittent-no-dash-backlight-problem-solved.html

-J