Sorry about that, chief. It didn't even occur to me that it would be a different rheostat. I see now:

(300D) P3012-11761 retail $73.00, FastLane price $36.32
(300SD) P3012-11760, retail $66.00, FastLane price $64.68.

A quick check on a few other sites shows places where one could pay even more, but not less!

Good fix! I'll be doing this to the SD soon because the lights are flacky and dim. However I don't care if a rheostat is $15 I ain't spending it on that car, I'll by pass.:D

I know this is an old thread, but I just managed to fix my rheostat and throught I'd mention how. When I took it apart, I found that the resistance spring had come unglued from the ceramic housing, had gotten bent up, and the wiper wasn't making contact anymore. Lucliky, I hadn't yet lost and of the tiny springs that keep the wiper against the spring, so I glued the resistance spring back in place, cleaned the contacting parts with a pencil eraser and reassembled everything. Only "glue" I had that might take the heat was some gasket compound (-60 to +400F), so that's what I used. Too early to tell if it will stand the winter and years, but heck, my daughter got a small electrical lesson out of it right in the middle of their electricity science lab section :-)

Forgot the beer though :(

did the same to my 71, works fine and has now for some time, I guess that is worth a celebration beer! Cheers

hmm, maybe I should try this...
 

I have been using two blue led's wrapped around the knobs pointing at the cluster, hooked up via cig lighter...
NICE and CLASSY!
John

Ya I dont think 4watt bulbs are ever going to be "too bright" on these MB's...


My beer of late has been SweetWater's 420 Pale Ale. It's hardly pale but not nearly as hardy as their seasonal Festive Ale(seasonal). Ya'll need to come down here and quit drinkin that Canadian swill (Molson). I've also been picking up 12paks for Grolsch for $10bux. Not bad $$$.

For the record, Guinness USED to be fantastic. Then they changed the recipe to make it more "shelf stable", now it tastes like crap.

Christ, you and my friend James must be related. Not only did he have the same hookup, he used a head mounted flashlight wrapped around his bumper for a tag light!#!@#!@#

blue glowing instrument panel?
 

You could you substitute the LEDs and resistors for the original panel lights while you're in there. A blue glowing instrument panel might be.. um.. unique :)

It'd at least help justify your time and effort to pull the instrument panel.

Yes this is 7/8 yrs old but... a friendly reminder to anyone searching this... rheostats are cheeep at any pic a part... locally they run $2

If they appear dirty inside, even a good washout with carb spray works well. I do not suggest getting one that the guts are falliing out of.

Assuming any in the yard work...

I used to run with a small flashlight taped to the steering wheel. No lie.

Sometimes I of miss being able to drive at night with no interior lights on.

I eventually replaced everything with amber LEDs which was incredible, I keep meaning to do that on my current DD.

I have posted in another thread about this.

The cluster printed circuit board traces will blow before the 8amp #1 fuse that is supposed to protect the circuit. This WILL happen if you somehow get a dead short in the instrument/dash lighting circuit.

In my case, I eventually found that the short was in the pillar between the front and read driver side doors.

Prior to that, I installed a jumper over the dimmer and also hard wired so that no grounds or power to the cluster illumination went through a printed circuit board trace. After doing this, I blew a few 8amp fuses just by opening rear door ( before find the short)