Originally posted by Matt R:
Superbrightleds.com lists those bulbs as wide beam:
74 Wedge Base LED bulb
Small Wedge Base LED bulb (74 type)
3/16 inch wide base, 13/16 inch overall length
Flat tipped LED produces wide beam angle
$ 1.19
I know they aren't a "true" wide beam, but they are better than a regular plain LED. They produce kinda a wide circle as compared to a narrow circle.
I have 2 of those, except in the larger #194 size... they came in today with the rest of my LEDs. They are lower output than the 6 led #194s, but that's to be expected since it's only 1 LED. They also produce almost no light forward, unlike a normal LED. They work PERFECT for my footwell lights... nearly as bright (if not brighter) than the incandescent lamps.
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Anyway, now to my little thingamajig.
You can fit #194 LEDs in the instrument cluster... You just need to trim both the #194 base
AND the socket. They fit perfectly in the hole, which leads me to believe that you can put those "1 forward LED, 4 side emitter LED" #194 lamps in for more even coverage.
Ok, for this, I used my trusty cheap-as-they-come-military-issued Leatherman (mostly the sharp knife [OW!] and the file) and five #194 six white LED lamps.
These are (from L to R): #74 blue LED; #74 incadescent; #194 6-white LED
You need to take the knife or whatever tool you choose (Xacto would work swell here) and trim the plastic down
nearly, but not all the way to the leads... Also notice I cut the nub off the bottom center. This was mostly to cut back on my thumb's misery... I don't think it will affect it fitting in the socket if you leave it on.
This lamp is halfway done...
A fully trimmed lamp next to a virgin lamp
In case you missed it 
, here they are again
Ok, on the sockets themselves, you will need to first of all trim all the inside corners off to accomodate the fatty part of the 6-LED lamp. You will also need to slightly trim the side of the inside (the inside part of where the assembly holds itself to the circuit board...).
What happens here is the round part of the 6-LED lamp (where the resistor and bottom of the LEDs and other crap is at) will not allow the base to sit far enough down in the socket, and it will "pop" back out fairly easily. You need to trim off all 4 corners and trim some excess on the flat part to accomate enough of the circular part so that the socket contacts will hold the lamp.
After wearing my tumb down to the bone, I figured out if you use the open side of the cutters in a pair of needle nose pliers, it makes it SO much easier!
Here is a virgin socket on the left, and my modified socket on the right
I circled where you need to trim since my wording above is pretty confuzing (even to me!)
Here is a shot farther away for some more detail or something
Ok, doing this will help hold the big mutha LEDs in the socket when you decide to turn your Konis all the way up and drive around Detroit...
Remove the clipy deals by using a small object (the tip of the knife works good) and depressing the small clip you can see on the part where you grab the socket to remove it. You then work the contacts out and bend them out so as to put more pressure on the base of the lamp. If you've ever removed pins/sockets out of a harness connector, this will be cake to you.
The top contact is fresh out the socket, the bottom contact is bent and ready to be reinstalled in the socket
To avoid the "flashlight" effect as much as possible, you will need to diffuse the light coming straight out of the LEDs. I used the handy dandy file in my Leatherman to file them down to where they were translucent. You may also paint them, but that may diminish light output.
Filed one on left, fresh one on right
This is just showing you the finished product compared to what you started with.
#194 6-LED lamp assembly on left, #74 incandescent assembly on right
Now for the pics of it in action!
This is the best "before" picture I have... There is 1 LED setup dead center, but you can see how dim the rest of the cluster is in comparison... in fact, the stock lights are so dim, they are barely readable in pictures.
And this is the finished dealio...
Cluster fills da pic yo... don't worry about that dang ol CEL
From the driver's point of view...
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Ok, I was also playing around with sticking the newly made LED setup in different lights to see what it would do. Well... both the white and blue LEDs
SUCK HARDCORE in a red indicator light. The light is VERY dim in this situation. Mostly because these LEDs produce very little red light. The red film blocks out most of the blue light, and is the same reason why they would suck in your taillights (unless they were in the cool guy clear tails
).
BUT... they shine amazingly bright in the blue and green indicators. I didn't even think of trying any yellow indicators, but I don't think it would look too good.
Well, here's before and afters...
High beam before (stock incandescent lamp)
And after with either white -OR- blue LEDs (this pic is actually the #74 blue base led pictured at the top, but the 6-led #194 setup produced similar results)
Little fuzzy, but driver's point-of-view
Here are the turnsignals, incandescent #74 and 6-led #194, respectively (in the same pic even!)
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Here was my other projects for the night... the 3610 4-led Festoon base bulbs I bought since I had a license plate light out
Before/after (still sportin the CEG frame, even though it doesn't quite fit these plates 
). Note that I could see the illumination in my well lit car park!
And in near-total darkness
Here's a comparison shot of #194 incandescent vs #194 6-led in Autometer Phantom guages (I shoulda put the single wide angle LED in the bottom for a comparison, but oh well!)
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Now check this oddity out...
Ok, I only had the white plug jacked in for ease of installing the lamp assemblies.
Well, look what happens when you turn the ignition to "Run" with the black connector
disconnected.
Ignition "RUN" / Black plug "DISCONNECTED"
Now look what happens when you turn the ignition to "Run" with the black connector
connected.
Ignition "RUN" / Black plug "CONNECTED"
Pretty weird, eh? The one single lamp that illuminates the fuel guage and right side of the speedometer will very dimly light up without the black connector. Jack in the black connector, and viola! The lamp goes out and the indicator lights illuminate.
NOTE: CLICK ON PICTURES FOR 1600x1200 FULL SIZE DETAILED PICS
Well, it's 1/4 past midnight... I'd say it's my bedtime! Maybe sometime in the near future I'll get enough balls to play with the needles and put Tyler's guage faces on! I'll do some pics of that too, so these are my "before" pics.
EDIT: now it's half past midnight since I added the circled pic... SLEEPY SLEEP TIME
