need some serious help w/ my gauge cluster. OLT, i'm hoping you can chime in on this.

when i initially bought the car, the cluster lights as well as the needles were white. i'm assuming previous owner had it sent out to get these redone somewhere. they were flickering and what not...i've lived with it until all the lights went out. so bought some used needles and removed cluster (btw, whoever designed those harness clips should go jump off a bridge).

okay, so i open the cluster up and this is what i see. let's take a look at the needle portion first. here are pictures of the resistor (removed) for the needles (both small and large needles have the same resistor):

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here's the needle that's on the cluster now and the new one i bought. it's soldered to the connectors:

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so i'd like to replace the needles with original ones since i already have these sitting next to me. do i simply remove the resistor and install the needle? also, how do i remove the existing needles since it's been soldered in place? heat it back up and remove the solder, hoping i don't do any damage to the connectors?


now onto the background bulbs. here are the resistors (removed) used:

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if i want to go back to stock on these, do i simply cut the resistors out? you can see the amount of solder used so installing a new bulb will be hard since it is now a lot thicker with built up solder. or i would have to find whatever these bulbs are and replace then on to the existing resistors:

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please help. i want these fixed so i can see my cluster. thanks!

 

You have an ANCIENT 1st gen LLS cluster (even before they became LLS). It's safe to say those led's have lived over half a decade. That design was scrapped years back because it absorbs voltage spikes and it is not cross compatible with any other cluster.

LLS has a lifetime wty, so I don't even see why you're messing with it. Write brandon and tell him you need to RTV a 1st gen from back in the black and white days. It'll have to be a total rebuild, that design was literally from the "wonder if this will work" days long before LLS became LLS.

If you are going to use the needles you already have you'll need to remove everything you see and resolder the poles to the metal boxes.

 

thanks OLT.