Jeep CJ7 Dash Light Repair, Restoration, LED upgrade 

If I can get time I’m going to do more videos. Been out of the restoration business for almost a year.

Make sure you've subscribed. I've got plenty more on the way. There's more topics to cover.

Interesting color for the face decals. Where did you get a set of beige decals?

@@coolguy_CJ7 I got them from whitefacegauges.com. I chose beige to match beige racing seats and 304 engine is beige as well. Trying to build my dream CJ, that I couldn't afford to do when I was a teenager.Red with beige interior and detailed engine. Also using your video to add LED lights in the dash! Thanks,again

@@williamshoemaker6233 Cool. Totally makes sense. I'm checking out whiteface right now.

Good assessment. :-) That was one of the things that I really clued into after I installed them in the 84 CJ seven. If I were to do it all over again, I would go with more of the warm light LED.. But like everything else it was a learning process. I will eventually swap out the bulbs on my 79 golden eagle, but that won’t be until they burn out.

Welcome to the club.

Excellent and welcome to the channel. I'm in the initial process of restoring a 79 CJ7 Golden eagle with a 304 V8 and t-150 transmission, so there will lots of new stuff coming in the next couple months. Hopefully you have subscribed so that you will get notified of my latest update.

Brilliant. I can get that up soon.

Only if you promise to subscribe. :) It would really help me out.

Am I not already subscribed?!? I thought i did that a long time ago! Ahh now I am!

Just wanted to let you know, I posted a video all around the Charcoal canister. I not only show where everything hooks up, but I show you how to completely restore the canister and get it into perfect working condition. Thanks for the request.

Thank you for that info. Love it when people have the correct info so we can all learn. Makes us all better at the CJ restoration. :)

Haven't tried that. I'll pull out a replacement lens that I have and try it. Cautiously optimistic.

@@coolguy_CJ7 Awesome! Let me know if you can get it light up with white text! Thanks!

Please let me know how it goes.

Wasn't me. :) but if you do find that video, share it out. As of now, I don't know of a reliable way to pull/push the indicator light housing through/out of the dash. I just try to carefully wedge them out one notch at a time. Sometimes they are so brittle, you don't stand a chance. Wonder if heating them a little with a heat gun would help soften them up a touch. I'm going to have to try that.

I totally agree. Did you just replace the casing and keep the original lens, brand new aftermarket dash light or did you go LED DIY?

All of the links should be in the description of the video.

Except for the "specialty" bolts, they are just standard fair. The seals and gaskets and most other parts can be sourced from Quadratec, Morris 4x4, or rockauto.com. are you replacing what you already have or replacing something that wasn't there before?

@@coolguy_CJ7 I need the specialty bolts. The mechanic I had working on my jeep helped himself to some of my parts .He never came back after I paid him . He tore my deep into pieces so now I'm having to piece it back together. The hardware for the timing chain cover is part of what he stoled along with the alternator and a few other things.

I would start with Rudy first. He has an incentory like no other snd will help you out. rudys-cjs.com/ If that doesn't work, then try to reach out to Mr. CJ on ebay. ebay.to/36rx0JB If neither of those work, there sre a few guys on FB market place that could help.

Yes. Let me dig up the bulb sizes and numbers.

That is one of the videos that I plan to do here really soon. Thanks for the suggestion. As long as you're subscribed you'll know about it immediately. Although i have to warn you, I did all of this out of a small room in the basement and my 2 car garage. It's a little underwhelming. But i guess that proves out you can do this almost anywhere.

@@coolguy_CJ7 Great. keep up the videos. Your videos inspired me to refurbish a CJ7 Center Console which came out great! I used some of your technics from your videos.

I made a set for my brother who has a CJ5. That was over a year ago and no problems. I don't know about 14.5v. What are you running that would need to take that much more voltage when everything in your dash operates on a grounded 12v?

@@coolguy_CJ7 Man I love your videos, your about to walk me though replacing my heater core in one of your vids LOL. I like your LED mod, but I would advise adding a current limiting resistor to one leg of your LED's. Your driving the snot out of them without one, and eventually you'll be pulling them apart again to replace them. I cant tell but it looks like there was wire already on your LED terminals with heat shrink over them? If so there may be a resistor already in line under the heat shrink, I just can't tell from the video. If so ignore me LOL. EDIT: I didn't see your link to the LED's, I looked at them, and there is a resistor in the wiring to the terminal so your good! My bad.

@@Aragorn35016_ Thanks so much for the eagle eye approach. The LEDs came with the resistor diode built in. I actually kept mine original, but just wanted to show how to do it if you wanted to. Keep the comments coming. It helps us all out.

5mm. Measured just to be sure.

The courtesy lights connect to the wire harness section that comes out of the light switch plug. The light switch and the courtesy lights are grounded through its threaded post and into the dash panel. There needs to be a little bit of exposed metal around the hole for the light switch post to ground it. The bevel nut that screws down over the light switch post that holds it in place can be removed with a pair of small tipped needle nose pliers and a little WD40.

@@coolguy_CJ7 thanks, yeah I guess there's no like door switch that makes the lights go on and off they only go on through the headlight switch, which mine was kind of bad so I replaced it and now they work fine when I just turn them on with the headlight knob. Oh, I traced the same wire that goes to the back and there's no light there so I was trying to find out what kind of light was supposed to be on the left side of the back seat that hooks up to the other interior lights through the headlight switch. There's a plug to plug it in but there's no light maybe you could help me if you know what lights supposed to go back there, thanks!

@@BryanHannaActingReel does the plug have a white, square housing and have an orange wire running to it?

@@coolguy_CJ7 yes it's a white kind of squared plug with the orange and black wire.

@@BryanHannaActingReel that would go to the light in the hardtop, inside, above the lift gate. It was either 81 or 82 when the hardtop changed slightly. Pre 80s had no interior light but the wire harness had it in anticipation.

Thank you for pointing that out. I didn't realize that I had not put the link to the LED lights in the description. Duh. I will do that tonight. Long live the CJ7.

@@coolguy_CJ7 Thank you. . . just looks like such a great upgrade. . .I have to do it. You did such a great job of showing in great detail how to do it. Thank you

Glad to be of service.

Did you check the description of the video? There's an Amazon link in there that should help.

More than likely. The LEDs give off a much whiter/blue light that helps show through as blue. The original bulds were incandescent and hence, more yellow. Yellow and blue make green. Blue/white and blue make blue.

Thanks. I’m worried that if I buy blue LEDs and put in the replacement ones it’ll look more purple than blue. I’m trying to match the slate blue of my seats and stuff! Thanks for the info and content 👍

Did you get the casings 3D printed yet?

@@coolguy_CJ7 yes. Didnt fit, im working on some changes that should make it fit better, got busy and kinda forgot about it since school and some other things needed repaired on the jeep, but once my parking light housing is done printing im gonna pop the file into the printer and try it out.

@@coolguy_CJ7 re sized it so that it fits aswell as the oem. I only put the ramp/ catch things on the bottom and top as its a pain to Remove them without pulling the dashboard Will probably post the STL file on thingiverse so anyone with a printer can print one.

@@coolguy_CJ7 the pla plastic is much more flexible than the original 40 year old ones

@@chickensfloat7427 that's for sure. That's why i replaced the plastic housing with the new ones but kept the original lens and bezel.

Patience is a virtue in the CJ World. I'm still working on your last idea. Trying to figure out how to make it an active part of the channel.

Which light are you referring to? I have a few original lights if you're interested.

I really appreciate the offer, but I need the whole set and I live in Europe. I love your videos. I learned so much. Thank you :)

Once you get them done and installed, send me a pict of the end result. I'd love to feature it in a video. Dellis6914@gmail.com