CMS mod

Ok,here is my CMS mod.

Due to failed tail light I tracked problem to the CMS and decided to complete the mod I had been planning to do...

I kept all high,low,tail,brake current running thru the CMS per stock(had considered bypassing wiring external CMS but trying to not modify stock wiring),but wanted to keep the fail indicators working, but change to LED lighting that would cause fail indicators to turn on.

So instead of the fail indicators being activated by the reed switches-I extended the reed switch wiring external the CMS for external input

1st pic the corrosion causing my tail light problem

First removed all 4 coils and reed switches

second drilled oversize holes for 14ga solid copper wire where the coils were

third installed 24ga solid telco wire in place of the reed switches

then I mounted canabilized RJ11 phone jack to rear cover of CMS, and connected telco wire to RJ11 with screws mounted on rear side of CMS cover

2nd pic schematic of CMS input circuits for these 4 items and modification

next 4 pics removed coils and drilled holes

next 2 pics RJ11 jack install

last pic I sealed board with finger nail polish to prevent future corrosion

Simple phone extension cord plugged into RJ11 brings wiring where needed for future direct light monitoring, and allows easy disconnect for future dash removal

Now I need to apply a frame ground to keep the warning lights off- easy to build future circuit to open frame ground during a failure of direct light monitoring circuit of hi,low,tail,brake.

I also replaced all dash indicators with LEDs from superbrightleds.com

found I had to reinstall 1 158 back into reserve light warning, due to small current always on lights up LED full. I put in blue back lights, and white warning lights. Only problem is Green neutral looks blue. Would suggest green LED here.

All tested and works as advertised.

I put in blue back lights, and white warning lights. Only problem is Green neutral looks blue. Would suggest green LED here.

Interesting. I too used some blue LEDs for instrument backlighting and was completely surprised at how dim/unreadable they were. After reading some previous posts about this, I suspected I might have to "live with" how bright the instrument lighting would be with LEDs. Such was not the case at all. I have amber LEDs for the turnsig indicators (in-dash, we're talking about), I left a blue LED for the neutral indicator cuz I don't mind that it's more blue than green), blue high beam indicator, stock incandescent 194 for "headlamp/RLU" indicator.

Check this out. Here's what my dash looked like with the blue LEDs in:

You might notice that my speedometer needle isn't orange but blue. That's because I attempted to make a total revamp of the cluster appearance as part of this project. It almost failed- big time. On the undersides of those needles is a very well-applied coating of some sort which is not easy to remove. I tried sanding it lightly, which was most effective in the long run. Tried light pressure with a soft carbon steel wire brush on the Dremel (too aggressive). Tried some degreasing solvent (this was when I snapped the tip of my tachometer needle right off; you may remember seeing a request from me for one of these not long ago). In the end the best was like I said- light sanding. Then I applied some silver Testors model paint to that same surface in the hope that it would be somewhat reflective but mainly it's just..... silver-ish.

After the LED backlighting didn't do the trick for me I thought perhaps 194B (blue) incandescent bulbs would make the difference up. No dice there; they hardly put out any light at all and one of the filaments blew within a minute or two of testing. I managed to talk a 50% refund out of the ebay seller. So now I'm back to stock off-white 194s again because they're the only ones I can get the instruments to light up to a readable level with. Disappointing- I absolutely hate that stock yellowish peachish orangish glow. Blue would have been awesome. Green was my next choice, but I'm not gonna keep throwin $ after it and yanking it apart all the time just to test it.

heres my dash

1pic in dark,no flash, long exp key acc

2pic in dark, no flash, long exp key on-neutral light washes out

3pic in light key on

4pic bulbs I used

note rlu light dim orange, not normally noticable, but reason had to keep 158 bulb, little voltage lights LED full

!!!!!!

That's exactly what I was going for and couldn't achieve. I wonder if the difference between the early and later dash panels is the accountable difference. Must be?

This was the style LED bulb I used: