Paradise by the dashboard light

[jesus_is_alright]

Great meatloaf song.
Anyway, tonight i have the joy of finding out why i have no dashboard light and no tail lights. I'm guessing they're on the same fuse, and yes i have checked the fuses
But what i'm really getting at is this.
For those of you who still have the Bedford factory instrument panel, Is your instrument panel about as bright as a smurf with a torch?
When i go past a streetlight i can't tell if my dash light is on or not, its so dull.
So have you guys put a brighter bulb in, LED's another light somewhere? Or is it just me?
And i can already hear 1000 comments telling me to change to a dash from something like a commodore, but the fact is i like the old dash and i won't be changing it. That is all

[Jeff]

I've never had decent instrument lights in any Beddie.
Shouldn't be hard to do something about though.

[grandad]

my dash is standard and is plenty bright enuff. try pulling the dash and cleaning out the holes were the globes go in

[ben]

i put a big light in a standard dash once and it melted the plastic:( good idea that one ha ha. leds would be better

[Dave]

I reckon the standard bedford headlights would nearly light up a bedford dash.
My dash lights are dim, I have no cabin lights, and the headlights are only good to show oncoming cars where you are at night.
Dave

[jesus_is_alright]

Hey guys thanks for your comments so far
Grandad, i'll try cleaning the dash out but it looks very clean
Ben, thanks for that, i woulda made that mistake for sure
Dave, I don't think the headlights are too bad. Yes they're not great but i've had worse
My first beddy musta had a dud alternator or something because driving that at night with the high beam on was like holding a mobile phone light to the road. I dared not go over 40kph because i couldn't see any more

[delrazor]

My switch had a trick to it. If I pull it out all the way there is no dash or tail. Then I push it in a little bit and all is well. maybe you have something lilke this going on.

[jesus_is_alright]

My switch had a trick to it. If I pull it out all the way there is no dash or tail. Then I push it in a little bit and all is well. maybe you have something lilke this going on.

That does sound a bit familiar. I had a play before, no dash lights, park lights or tails, removed the fuse for the front left hi-beam; instantly dash, tails and parks came on, replaced the fuse and its all sorted.
Chalk that up to my first experience of Bedford wiring

[Bedfordcrazy]

Hey Aron, you have to remember you are dealing with something that is 35yrs old give or take. In my case i decided when i started on my custmising to replace the headlights and cluster, but if you want to keep yours, there is a very cheap way to get the latest brightness. You can go L.E.D quality without changing you headlights or cluster, just spend a few dollars and go led globes, as well as changing my lights i also installed led globes. This one is about $13, but it will last about 100,000 hrs. Cheap and easy fix, but i would give your lights and dash a good clean out to get a good result. The one shown is for tail lights, but they screw into the existing socket, no modifying at all. Hope this helps.

george.

[Warren]

In the camper I have the standard dash, and (at times) I have great lights, I have some sort of bad earth/short some where (that I cant bloody find yet) that dims the headlights and dash lights as well.

I have installed H4 hella headlights with 40/60 bulbs and when they are working right they as bright as any modern car - excellent

But when that bad earth/short or whatever kicks in the dull considerably.

My experience is that the areas of concern are the high/low dipper switch - which also includes the indicators and horn and the actual light switch.

I'm going to temporarily replace the light switch with some toggle switches to see if the switch is at fault, and keep looking for the problem.

Just a note on the light switch, it has three positions - off - parklights - head lights.

Off - speaks for its self
Park lights - turns on Dash lights, front park lights and rear tail lights.
Head lights - leaves on Dash lights and rear tail lights, turns off front park lights, turns on the headlights.

Also if you twist it clock wise the dash lights should brighten - anticlockwise dim, and from memory all the way round clockwise should turn on the interior light - but I will need to check the wiring diagram to confirm that.

If you look closely at the wiring diagram it tells you this

Warren