The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Where can I find these dash lights?

I've been all over the web to no avail. I've been told there were originally lights in the small holes (see attached) and when I pulled them off the each had a colored filament in them. Anyone know where the bulbs can be bought, I can't find anything on the major parts sites.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/71945287@N03/15015061048/

They should have a colored lens over them, red on the left for high beam indicator and green on the right for turn signal indicator. The sockets for the bulbs are standard dash light sockets.

"Standard dash light sockets" as in a universal product for multiple brands or is there something GM made that was used for all light sockets?

It's a BA9 (9mm bayonet) socket. You should be able to get them at a well stocked parts jobber. If you can't find them locally you can get them on line.

As Tiny said and also, read the bulb number from one of the other dash light bulbs. I have some from my 56GMC, if you need sockets or if you can't read the other bulbs. I will dig them out. O'Reilly's and such will have them.

Thanks guys. Headed to the store tomorrow to pick some up. Another question - where do the lights behind the gauges mount? This truck is a rebuild and my father in law didn't have any lights behind the gauge clusters. I couldn't find anything that looked obvious as to where they would mount either.

The sockets go in the housing plates and light the gauges through little slots with green plastic in them.

The TF GMC Clusters have left and right gauge mounting plates and left and right Bezel/trim plates. The lights mount/snap into the cylindrical towers sticking up in the back. As said, the towers have a big directional slot and the gauges have slits. There is a green "Gel" material all around the inside of gauge housings. The bulb shines into the gauge slits. They are all wired together and attached to proper headlight switch terminal. Except for the turn signal bulb and high beam bulb.

Thanks guys. I'm amazed at stuff like this on the truck that I've never noticed. Not to mention how simple and smart they were with the designs. Here's a photo of the back of my cluster: https://www.flickr.com/photos/71945287@N03/15207496692/

The yellow arrows are what I presume are the sockets for the bulbs. There is no "gel" in there anymore. Do you all recommend the same BA9 sockets? What wattage bulbs? I'm also trying to figure out how to hold the bulbs in there.

Likely use a #57 bulb.
Your socket will be similar to this. There are a number of BA9S (single contact) sockets on the market but you'll need to sockets with the "ears" around the bulb to hold the socket in place in the panel.

Yes, as Tiny says, bulb goes into socket. Fingers on socket press into top of tower. The Gel is in the gauge not the socket tower.

I guess the gel amplifies the light?

Really hard to stay logged in today. Bulbs: the base is known as a BA9, which as Tiny said is a miniature bayonet type. There are two GE numbers that fit that I know of GE-53 1.7W, 1 candle power and GE-57 3W, 2 CP. These are in my spare sockets. The gel is just to color the light green and spread out the light all around. Diffuses and colors. Does not amplify in the sense of making brighter.
The Gels are available at camera stores or on the web. Known as camera diffuser lighting gels. I sent for free samples on the web and used that a few years back.
So.... bulbs: Any FLAP
Socket: Possible FLAP under "gauge lights" or Ebay or wanted forum here.(probably same socket as 55-59 Chevy cluster uses and others)
Gel: As described
Wired: per schematic. Each gauge plate will need a dedicated ground wire to it.
Your GMC looks nice.

Thanks again. I found some of the diffusers on google and will have to figure out how they work.

Think this would work for the bulb socket: http://www.classicparts.com/1967-87-Instrument-Panel-Bulb-Socket/productinfo/55-575/#.VBH45sJ1x8E

Well I logged in 4 times to answer this, anyway, does not look like that will work with bulb or tower. Take a close look at Tiny's pic, you need those springy fingers around the perimeter of socket to press into tower. You can use any type 12V bulb as long as the socket and bulb fits. I would be patient and find original sockets. American Auto Wire has them, I believe, as Part Number 500127...$6 each, for 5/8 hole.... or Summit for $5.10. You will need to verify fit.

Are you using IE for your browser? If so that's a common issue with IE & our forum software. A work around if you're married to IE is to uncheck the remember me box when you log in. Some report that they stay logged in as long as their session is active. Those with FireFox or Chrome browsers don't have that issue. There are a few threads in the Shortbus about that issue.

I have been putting a check in the remember me. Thanks. Maybe I will switch to Chrome.

Try UN-checking it and see if it improves. It's kind of counter intuitive but one user says it stopped him from being kicked off multiple times each session.

Weird how it is perfect for weeks, then goes haywire. May be something I'm doing.
UPDATE: read the bus and I see cookies expire and all that kind of talk. Blame it on the Bossa Nova. I will not complain anymore. Thanks Tiny.

Thanks guys, ordered a bunch of the sockets from summit. I really appreciate all the help.

So I received all my parts last night, and played around for a little while. I'm having a grounding problem. The self grounding socket and bulb fit perfect, but they are not getting a good ground with the dash. I'm thinking about running a ground wire from the back of the firewall (where I ground two other items) to one of the screws that hold the dash plates in, but I'm not sure that will work. Anyone else have a recommendation?

Also, with the gel is that something just for customization on the dash lights or did they have something from the factory? I can't figure out how to put the gel in the current setup. Any thoughts on this is also appreciated.

Dielectric gel is supposed to seal out the weather. I don't see where it would be needed in the cab.

Not dielectric gel, it's a gel difuser material for camera lighting. Previous poster said it goes in the gauge to help spread the light; though I have no idea how to get it in the gauge. It's basically like a fancy piece of plastic that is different colors and changes how the bulb light looks.

Tiny, is "Dielectric" gel being referred-to above?

It looks like the references to a "gel" are referring to a transparent colored gel (acetate) sheet/pane for an indicator lamp?

This topic recently came up on oldGMCtrucks.com
It was suggested that the gels (red and green) be "frosted" by gently buffing them with 500 wet/dry abrasive/paper.

If I am wrong about the type of "gel" being discussed above, I apologize for posting this.

Yeah, the picture you show from Classic parts is for later models with a printed circuit on the back of the instrument cluster.
You cannot have too many grounds on these old rusty trucks. I ran an extra ground wire from my instrument panel to a known good ground.

This is what I ordered: http://www.summitracing.com/parts/aww-500127

And if anyone needs multiple bulbs - I recommend ordering online. I paid $5 per 2pack at the auto parts store (and needed 10 bulbs).

....if you go to the COMMERCIAL counter at the local Advance/AutoZone/O'Riellys and ask for the commercial pack of bulbs you can get a 10 pack for a dollar or two more than the two pack. I do it all the time. Its a good way to stock up on bulbs.

It seems not. When I read "Gel" that's what came to mind. I didn't re-read the complete thread. My bad. I've always called the colored films by other names. To me "Gel" is stuff like Vaseline.

The factory used some sort of green translucent material on GMC TF gauges, as Cletis said, to turn the color green and diffuse. They decided white was too bright and light needed spread. I have found photographic gel will work and is readily available. It is a used for special effects and filtering. That is why I mentioned gel. If you google Photographic Gel you will see what it is. TC shows an example. I sent away for some free samples and used the green and the red. If I remember, I had to take the gauges apart. That may mean curling back the lip all around. I did this a long time ago and was wanting to clean/reface the gauge also. Best I can remember. Also I ground at the gauge clamp screw and then to a spot on the lower left dash sheet metal. These grounds MUST BE shinny metal clean with star washer used. Clean the lip and rim of the tower to shinny also. We are after what is called "intimate contact" here. BTW: You don't have to do the gel thing if you don't want to. You will get gauge lighting without. The heat and age have caused the green material to disintegrate.

Thanks Bartamos. I ordered some photographic gel off ebay, looking forward to playing around with it. I got everything wired up last night. I hit the towers with steel wool but still had ground issues, so I ran a ground to the light and then ran all of them to the firewall. Everything works. I did send the fuel gauge off a month back to Bob's to get fixes and it appears he put the green gel in when he fixed it, as that is the only gauge that has a green tint. I don't really ever drive the truck at night so I'm not too worried about it, but wanted to have the lights just in case.

How hard/difficult was it to pull the gauges apart to clean them? Thanks for all your help on this, took some time but well worth it.

If they are the type that the front retainer is crimped on, you have to slowly peel it back without tearing or stressing the metal. After rebuild, crimp it back all around. It's not not hard, just getting the correct tools and technique going. Never got them all to work with a newer motor but wanted them to look original. Sometimes it's hard to get old gauges to work well. Those chrome/stripe faced gauge bezel plates you have are rare and valuable in good condition. Take care with them. You can shine them, but be careful with too much pressure when doing so. Each gauge bezel is chrome also, as you know, these can be gently cleaned with #0000 steel wool soaked in simple green and gently shined up if they have rust, if not, regular polishing.. If the lettering on your gauge faces is tight, you can daub the plate with Q tips and water to clean. If they are too shabby, new decals are available. The numbers on the speedo wheels will fall off if you even look at them.