Captain Obvious

Kira, I have a 240 rear overrider bar available, but I don't remember what year it is from. Is there any identifying measurements you can convey that would help me determine what year it is for? Or, as an alternative... Could you identify it simply from a photograph? Cause I could certainly do that.

OK, fine. If the flow rate into the bowl was higher than the rate exiting, it would overflow out the tube into the air cleaner. How'd I do?

They changed the bulb style for the littlest bulb over the years, but I don't think there are BA7's in your year. They used a smaller (smaller than BA9S anyway) bulb in things like the hazard switch, fasten seat belt warning, and defroster switch. But in 77 they used a T-1-3/4 globe glass wedge base, not a bayonet base. I didn't look into the earlier bulb style in earnest, but in 74 they used a different base for those small bulbs. So the earlier cars may use a BA7S, but the later cars don't. I don't know when the transition to the wedge base occurred, but you're after it. For posterity, my 77 original bulbs for smaller indicators like fasten seat belt, hazard, defroster was a TSD 74 - Glass Wedge Base, T-1-3/4 globe - 14.0 Volt 0.10 Amp 1.4 Watt

Haha! Nice. You really want to pull all the fuses out of that fuseblock anyway and clean up all the electrical contacting surfaces. I'd replace the fuses with new ones as well even if the old ones still conduct. Most of my filaments were saggy. I've been told that in a couple years it will be more than my filaments, but for now, we'll go with that.

Snake Plissken huh? I head of you. It looks like Solex has a number of different products. Is there something specific you were asking about?

Yeah, I figured, but I had to ask. So one more far fetched possibility... In the old days they used to put a small hole in the chassis of stuff like that to adjust the clock. I guess there's a tiny chance that you've got something like that? Maybe covered by a sticker? And lastly, have you talked to Retro about the issue? There's no way you should be off by 10 min/week. There's a problem there that should have been caught in production testing.

Bummer. It looks like they must have recently added that ON/OFF feature between when you purchased yours and now. Looks like yours just skips right over that one. I took another look at the current manual, and I couldn't find a copyright date on it, but it must be a newer version with some updates. I guess one last thing would be to actually look for that feature on your radio (if you haven't already) in the slim hopes that it's a documentation issue and that feature actually IS in there, but isn't mentioned in the manual? I'm thinking you already tried that, but it's my duty to ask.

Do you mean that you can't figure out how they are supposed to be positioned, or you can't figure out how to hold stuff while you twist it during the assembly process?

I'm putting in more resistance in addition to what was originally in there, so I'm actually significantly under-driving the LED's. Remember... I'm trying to decrease brightness. I'm thinking that I should never ever have to go back in there again. Not for about 50K hours anyway. My soldering technique is better than the kid in China that put them together the first time and I used enough glue to assure they won't easily twist apart like they did originally.

I'm not sure about the very early cars, but in general, here is what is dimmable: Gauges (speedo, tach, temp/oil, volt/amp/fuel, clock) HVAC panel Radio faceplate Hazard switch green indicator And the gear shift position for the auto trans if so equipped. All the other things including cigarette lighter, glove box, ash tray, map light, high beam and turn signals, etc are non-dimmable and run full brightness at all times. If you leave at least one incandescent in the circuit, you'll get some dimming function even with the original rheostat, and the easiest one to forget about is the hazard switch.

And as for putting a kit together... You know you won't get good brightness control unless you upgrade to a pulse width dimmer too, right? If you use the LED's with the original rheostat, you'll be pretty much full bright all the time.

TomoHawk, Those 5730 or 5050 number designations for the LED emitters are a "series number" relating to physical size. The numbers are in millimeters with an assumed decimal point. For example, 5050 is a square outline package that measures 5.0 by 5.0 mm on the sides. Other example, 5730 is a rectangular package that measures 5.7 mm by 3.0 mm on the sides. Those numbers don't tell you anything else like color, hue, manufacturer, brightness... Just size. Consumer packaged LED technology is moving very quickly right now, and everything is volatile. In fact, that may be why there aren't as many of those eight emitter paddlewheels on ebay. It's volatile.

So I got my car put back together and did some night time driving for the first time this season and got to try out my new pulse width dimmer and dash LED's. I'm thrilled with the results of how the job turned out. I know it's really hard to describe with words how bright the LED's are now, but I would say... "They are a little brighter than the original incandescents turned all the way up, but they are a purer white than the originals." Here's the LED bulbs that I used. Six on the left with the top emitter removed and a 240 Ohm resistor built into the base. These are for everything other than the clock. The clock wanted a little more brightness due to the construction of the clock and the way the light has more internal obstructions before it gets to the face. Because of that, I used a 150 Ohm resistor for the clock emitter. And the wedge base paddlewheel on the right was for the HVAC panel. I shorted out all the original resistors an inserted a 1K Ohm resistor in series with the whole device. For that one, I broke the original ground side connection and inserted the resistor there. All of them are warm white, and here they are all done and glued back together ready for install: And here's a closeup of the paddlewheel for the HVAC trying to show how I inserted the 1k:

TomoHawk, I can't believe those paddlewheels aren't on ebay. I thought they were everywhere! I like a good pun and all, but that's just sad. ?

hansonsaid, Awesome. I haven't had to touch mine since I put it all together. Works great. Did you get the Audi hose new, or from a junkyard?

Nice detail work on the parts. Sometimes it's the little things that really add enjoyment. Like you, I've found that the driver controls fit into that category. And along those lines, I finally snapped a pic of my headlight switch that I cleaned up next to one that has been sitting in a box. Here's the two switches so you can see the contrast of before and after. It's the little things:

It looks like there have been a couple different designs of that switch over the years. The pic from that older thread looks like brass. Yours looks like white plastic, and the one that CanTechZ posted looks like black plastic. I don't think you'll be able to find just that little piece available anywhere, so it's either make a new one or replace the whole switch. How does yours attach to the spring? Does it slip over the outside like CanTechZ's, or is there a small pin that goes inside the ID of the spring? Or is there so little left of the part that you just can't tell?

That's some nice stuff there. My PO painted all that black trim in the rear of my car with a gloss black. It just doesn't look right. It's low priority for me, but one of these days I'd really like to do something about it.

Matt, I notice the shade issues with LED's. My eyes have always disliked the bluish hue to the "white" LED's. I just have a hard time seeing with that kind of illumination. Seems like I lose contrast or something. For my dash lighting, I used all "warm white" LEDs (color temp around 3000K?) and they are much better. I tried them for the first time on the road earlier tonight and I really like the way the project turned out. I'm out of time right now, but I'll try to post details next time I'm logged in. I also had an eighties vintage GM and all the instrumentation was amber (red/orangish). It was neat for a while, but I also drove eithgies vintage Acura/Honda and they used white. I liked the white better than the amber.

I doubt the end of that spring portion was solder. It doesn't have to be conductive, and low friction is important. I suspect it was a little plastic nubbin. That's the technical term. Are you sure yours is worn? It looks like a weird shape, but that might be normal. Do you have another to compare it to?

Don't let me be a party pooper though. Some of the results I've had with different designs was not what I expected, so make sure you try what you have. I was getting hot spots with the tower design, but yours are much shorter have the top emitter farther from the gauge face. That might be all that it needs to even things out. Give it a shot!

Wheee, To each his own, but I've found those top broadcasting LED's created "hot-spots" of light and didn't do a great job of dispersing the light evenly inside the gauges. The farther from the edge, the better (like the clock), but I found the tach and speedo were problematic. It might just be me looking for "perfection" though. I sometimes see stuff that others don't. Can be a blessing or a curse. TomoHawk, That's a good idea with the marker for green. Hope it turns out as intended. I think I've nailed down my brightness changes and have all my gauges loaded up. I put my dash back in yesterday and have a couple loose ends to tie up today. Haven't been out on the road yet with streetlamps and oncoming traffic, but initial indications in the dark garage are promising. I'll post up some details after I've confirmed everything is done.

I'm just glad you said it so I didn't have to!

I wouldn't call SOL yet... Here's a link to the Model 2 manual: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0932/8664/files/Model_Two_Owner_s_Manual.pdf?10807432948100287839 On page 20, they list the same clock sub-menu and features as the Redondo. So according to the documentation, it's in there.

Have you got a pic of what you're talking about? This isn't a stock Z wheel, right?