KISS dash light fix

[Pete Burton]

For over 9 years I've fiddled with the dash light rheostat, trying to get it to stay bright enough. It's never been "too bright". Finally, it got to the point I could hardly see anything. So I bent up my little piece of coathanger and pulled the instrument cluster out a bit. The ceramic rheostat housing was chipped and the wiper coil was hanging out. It was really beyond repair. I removed the one screw from the back and unplugged the rheostat. I pried the metal case/clip off and removed the guts. Stripped the ends of a 1" piece of scrap wiring and soldered a jumper across the 2 terminals on the back of the housing. Plugged it back on the back of the instrument panel, replaced the screw, and pushed the panel back into place.

It works great. Perfect brightness for me. no more fooling with that knob. The whole job only took 15 minutes and 1 beer.

[92497pmu]

mmm beer....

job well done

[vwbuge]

That prboably would have taken me 2-3 beers. The easier the job the more beer it takes.

Lately the beer of choice has been Molson Golden.

[Brian Carlton]

IIRC, for about $20.00 you can replace the entire rheostat in the time it takes to pour the first beer.

Lately, the beer of choice has been Bass Ale. Molson is a bit too bitter for me.

[Austin85]

Good job,

Bass Ale is nice ; but it is even nicer with 1/2 pt. of Guinness Stout.

[Brian Carlton]

Originally Posted by Austin85

1/2 pt. of Guinness Stout.

I once had the displeasure of ordering Guinness Stout with a German who was visiting from the Fatherland.

He takes one sip of the Guinness and a horrible look comes over his face and he pronounces:

DISS ES NOT BEER

I have to say that I agree with him.

[Keith_otr]

Originally Posted by Pete Burton

It works great. Perfect brightness for me. no more fooling with that knob. The whole job only took 15 minutes and 1 beer.

It probably would have taken me about 8-9 beers to do the job....but at that point, the brightness of the instrument cluster wouldn't really matter to me anyway.

[Eskimo]

The rheostat is currently priced at $36.32 at FastLane.

My instrument lights have been running with a KISS fix for months, now, though. The max brightness seems about right for me, so it's one of those temporary fixes that may stay permanent.

Oh, and I had a bottle of Pilzner Urquell this evening.

[Pete Burton]

Originally Posted by eskimo

The rheostat is currently priced at $36.32 at FastLane.

My instrument lights have been running with a KISS fix for months, now, though. The max brightness seems about right for me, so it's one of those temporary fixes that may stay permanent.

Oh, and I had a bottle of Pilzner Urquell this evening.

For $36 I MIGHT have sprung. But their price this morning is $64.68, at least for the 82 SD. It's the same with the tach thing. I'd spring if it was cheaper.

[meltedpanda]

Someone say scotch? Single malt Ardbeg here

[Hatterasguy]

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.

[Eskimo]

Originally Posted by Pete Burton

For $36 I MIGHT have sprung. But their price this morning is $64.68, at least for the 82 SD. It's the same with the tach thing. I'd spring if it was cheaper.

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!

[winmutt]

Originally Posted by eskimo

The rheostat is currently priced at $36.32 at FastLane.

My instrument lights have been running with a KISS fix for months, now, though. The max brightness seems about right for me, so it's one of those temporary fixes that may stay permanent.

Oh, and I had a bottle of Pilzner Urquell this evening.

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.

[patbob]

Originally Posted by Pete Burton

.. The ceramic rheostat housing was chipped and the wiper coil was hanging out. It was really beyond repair. I removed the one screw from the back and unplugged the rheostat. I pried the metal case/clip off and removed the guts. Stripped the ends of a 1" piece of scrap wiring and soldered a jumper across the 2 terminals on the back of the housing. Plugged it back on the back of the instrument panel, replaced the screw, and pushed the panel back into place.

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

[meltedpanda]

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