5th times a charm... anybody else run into this?

After replacing the bulbs in all my gauges with the Radio Shack 14.4v 200Mah bulbs, my speedometer would not work. I took it back out and took it apart 5 different times and every time I had it out, I could not find anything wrong, but when re-installed, it would not work. The last time I was removing it, when I was laying on my back with my arm under the dash, I noticed the needle jumped when I removed the bulb socket.... I got to looking closely and found out the Radio Shack bulb is just a little longer than the stock bulb and it was just touching the disc that is spun by the magnet plate in the speedo. Pulled the bulb socket out of the speedo housing just about 1/16 inch and the speedo worked great!!! I've seen lots of folks here recommend those bulbs, (thats why I used them, and they are much brighter) just wondering if anyone else has run into this. It was extremely frustrating, but now I can pull and re-install a speedo in less tha 10 minutes and I know the inner workings like a pro!! Whew, I'm glad thats over.

Practice makes perfect. I use those bulbs and haven't noticed any problems with speedo. Maybe there is a slight difference between the 69 speedo and the 74. I always get paranoid when I'm ready to bolt the dash back in, with my luck there is some wire that has come loose.

Great tip Trey! That's the sort of thing that really helps on the board.

Jack

I replaced my bulbs after reading the threads, next day, my speedo would go up, then sometimes would come down....I had replaced the bulb while the speedo was still in (small hands, minimal bleeding). I just put my hands back under again...slightly more bleeding, turned & touched everything, it worked after that, but until I read your story, I had no clue why it started working again. Thanks for the tip, if it stops again, I'll know to just back off on the bulb.

Don

twigworker Wrote:

Thanks for passing that tip on. I'm planning on making the bulb swithch this winter and will keep this in mind!