I have tried a few of the LED replacement bulbs, and while the
Spinner Tail/Break LED light worked well, I thought the Running/Blinker
LEDs were not bright enough. I also thought they were a bit expensive
for LEDs. I made mine for less than $5.00 a piece.
So, I looked on
eBay and found some LEDs that I thought would work. They are 10P 12VDC
white Pre Wired 10mm LEDs, they are advertised as being "Intensely
Bright" and "Low Power Consumption" and the Luminous Intensity is rated
at 12000 mcd. I got the from
newlightworld on eBay for $7.99 for a 10 pack.
I first tried using
one LED and found it to be about the same brightness as the other LEDs I
had bought, so, I ended up using 2 LEDs for each incandescent filament
and got the effect I wanted.
The following is how I did it.
Here is the LEDs I recieved.
I bought a pack of
1157 and a pack of 1156 bulbs at Walmart for $1.88 a pack.
I removed the bulb.
I covered the glass with Duct Tape.
I put it in a
small vice and tightened it till the glass broke, then I removed the
duct tape with the glass stuck in it and tossed it.
I then used a pair
of needle-nose pliers and around the metal to crush the glass inside it
and remove it. I then cut the filaments out and trimmed the wires and
bent them down to make them easier to solder the LEDs onto.
I now have my bulb
base ready and trimmed a couple LEDs down and stripped the insulation
off the wires.
I
twisted 2 LEDs together and soldered the wires together.
I then soldered
the wires to the connections in the bulb base, pushed the excess wire
down into the base, then used a very small wire tie to strap everything
together to the inside glass base the connections were coming out of.
They a used my
glue gun to put a nice coating to protect the wires and connections, and
to also have a nice base to use to insert and remove the bulbs into the
socket in the buke.
Here is my finished bulbs, 2 for the back, and 2 for the front that has
both the running lights and the blinkers. Everything has 2 LEDs for each
function.
Here
is one installed in the socket.
Well, that is how
I did it. Less than $5.00 a bulb! :)
Since I come from a
computer/electronics background, I enjoyed this much more than getting
oily! :)
Hope this may help someone looking to do something similar,
if not, at least it should be entertaining! :)
