Gaffney982

What's price on a full interior bulb set for a '99 xj, no overhead console, front and rear dome lights?

Snajo

All prices are in the first post of the thread. $45 for 97-01 interior and instrument sets. Interior only set price is $35 and the instrument only set price is $15.

There's a lot of info in the first post and the 4th/5th. See the link in my sig to check it out directly.

Thanks,
Jason

Snajo

Since I'm having radio problems, I decided it was time to pull my dash apart and install a green LED set. As I posted before, I've been toying with the idea of using flexible adhesive backed LED strips to improve the HVAC panel lighting. Well, I've installed the lights and they are now undergoing a burn-in test of sorts... basically, I'm going to let them run for a few days on the test bench (ie, floor). After that, I'll take the assembly apart to look for signs of heat damage.

For green (and probably blue) I find that putting the strip on the back of the faceplate works well because the light reflects off the white plastic of the rear HVAC assembly. When I placed them to shine directly on the faceplate, the lighting was less even.


This is a quick snapshot what the panel looks like with the one green strip. Notice for the top is considerabley brighter than the bottom and the red on the right doesn't shine well at all.


I installed a second green LED strip on the bottom of the HVAC faceplate. This should improve the brightness across the panel. Also, notice the red LED strip placed on the back of the HVAC panel facing directly at the faceplate. Hot spots aren't a problem in the case of the red.


This looks better in reality than one would guess from the photo. The green is green, the red is red. Top is stock and bottom is LED. Total cost for the LEDs was about $12 shipped and install took about an hour due to some wire striping, soldering, heat shrinking, and hot glue-ing to (hopefully) keep things in position.

I plan to make these an option (or the only option) this summer. Until then I'm selling the current stock instrument LEDs at $15 shipped for 97-01, and $20 shipped for 84-96. The combo instrument/interior sets are also $5 off.

Speaking of new lights, I have replaced the interior lights for 84-96 OHCs and 97-01 reading lights. The new light uses six high powered LEDs with a diffusion coating instead of the previous 42 and 68 chip "corncob" style LEDs that used to be included.

I have a new module that fits the 97-01 cargo and OHC lamps, but in my testing it showed a slight warping of the plastic that covers the LED after two weeks of continuous use at 16v in my office. It has twice the chips in the same package as the current lamp for that purpose. It is significantly brighter, so course... to the point that I wouldn't recommend it for the OHC. It's great for the cargo area, except that if it has issues being on for a long period of time inside my house at 70 degrees, I can't imagine it will do well in the summer.

The last change is to the 84-01 front dome lamp and the 84-96 cargo lamp. The new LED is considerably stronger than the old one, which was the biggest problem... I sent out so many replacements that I ended up just putting an extra in each set. The new one is very similar in brightness... I compared them side by side and didn't see much difference. I'll have to do a side by side comparison and post pics one of these days.

I'm excited about getting out of the Army. I'm starting to find myself more and more motivated to do the things I enjoy. Four months to go.

Snajo

I've mentioned it before, but I'm clearing out all the instrument sets I have in stock.

current stock
pre97:
3x white sets
2x blue
2x green
2x red (dim overall)

97-01
4x blue
4x white
1x green
5x red (cluster is good, rest are dim)

$5 off the price on instrument and combo (instrument & interior) sets. I'll bring them back in a few months. I've got a lot going on over the next four months... getting out of the Army, moving back to Utah, starting engineering school to name a few. Once I get to Utah, I'm going to register a business and get a website set up for these lights. It may not yield much, but I'd like to learn about how to run a small business without a huge risk. I have a couple/few thousand wrapped up in this, so it won't kill me if I screw it up. I'm not taking out any loans regardless.


This is how I soldered the light strip leads to the back of the panel... outside copper ring is hot and inner ring is ground. I had to put a dab or solder on the panel and then melt the wire leads into it. I'm not done with this setup. I broke the red strip during install. Once everything is in place I'll glue over the solder. I'm not sure how well it'll stay in place over time.


This is a snapshot of the current setup. I didn't like how pale the green in the cluster was compared to everything else, so I went with a split color setup. I'd do blue, but my radio has to be green or blue. All the other colors are really hard to see during the day.

Anyway, the paleness of the green is something I'm going to try to address this summer, but it may due to the cluster itself.

On a side note, I finally got the radio mounted so it's not loose. I made a bracket for the back of the radio out of the faceplate I got from crutchfield. It's a pretty easy piece... if I had a 3d printer and knew how to use one, I could make them pretty easy... and if anyone else is like me... I hate how poorly aftermarket radios mount into my XJ.

Ianf406

Getting out of active duty was one of the best and worst times in my life haha. I wish you luck! Stick with your plan and you'll be good to go! I joined the reserves afterwards and it is nice to still have a somewhat military atmosphere at times. Plus I've got to go do some fun stuff... going to Germany this year. Active only got me stationed at Fort Polk and sent to the desert more than I ever wanted. When I got out I never planned on signing up for the reserves haha... I was DONE!

I would like a full set of blue for a 1999 shipped to 59834. PM me your PayPal and ill send it away!

long_road

PM sent!

Snajo

I've mentioned it before, but I'm clearing out all the instrument sets I have in stock.

current stock
pre97 ($20 shipped):
3x white sets
2x blue
2x green
2x red (dim overall)

97-01 ($15 shipped):
3x blue
4x white
6x red (cluster is good, rest are dim)
1x green (last unclaimed set)

see the first post in the thread for interior/instrument combo sets

JPXJMOAB

is this price just for the cluster?

rtralabama

Made 44 work for both dome lights
Twist ties and aluminium foil.

Snajo

I just bend the posts inwards so the LED fits snug. Granted, on the pre-97 models it ends up being a lot of bending, but I haven't heard of any breaking. If it were my install, I'd also clean the posts and put a dab of solder to help hold the led in place a little better.

I was sending out cree based LEDs, but the loops on the ends were crappy. Now I'm sending out chip-on-board type LEDs. They're stronger, cheaper, and very similar in brightness to the cree LEDs. With the type you have brightness depends on the quality of chips of course, so it could be very good or so-so. My only complaint with that type is the light pattern sometimes looks like stars due to there being many point sources of light and also because each point of light does it's own thing as it passes through the plastic dome cover.

It's the price for cluster backlight, transmission & transfer case, hvac panel, and rocker switches. Please read the first post in this thread for more details.

JPXJMOAB

Sent you a PM

Ianf406

Got mine in the mail today! I would love to put them in but Im currently in the middle of 10 different projects on my Jeep and need to catch up... enough pieces laying around for now lol. Looks like everything is there and should work! Thanks man.

Snajo

Let me know if you if you have any problems, even if it is a few weeks or months from now.

Also, I'm out of turn signal and high beam indicator LEDs. They were never a major part of the sets. I bought a small quantity of them to test out. Price will stay the same while the remaining instrument sets are cleared out.

Lastly, I used a higher power white LED for the pre-97 HVAC panel and it looks really good. It lights up the entire panel, although the red isn't quite as bright as the blue area. Anyway, I'll be including them in sets from now on. If anyone already has a pre-97 set and would like a brighter HVAC panel (white backlight only), the single LED will be $2 shipped.

Of course, anyone that has had an LED go out can let me know. I'll send replacements, no charge. It helps me sort out where to focus improvements and what types of LEDs and vendors work best.

Thanks!

Snajo

Unless you've already contacted me, I'm going to halt sales for a week or two. I'm running low on a couple types of LEDs and I seriously need to figure out what to do with the couple thousand LEDs that I've purchased and either didn't make the cut or have been replaced by improvements.

As far as the LEDs I'm low on, I've ordered new stock... just waiting on it to arrive.

If you send a PM, I'll get back with you when I'm fully restocked.

Thanks!

gpXJ

Sent PM. Just posting for updates, waiting on availability.