dash lights

[christopher]

how can i make my dash lights brighter?
do i need to replace the reostats? they look good
thanx
chris

[buswarrior]

You can get an incremental improvement by cleaning off the bulbs and carefully the plastic skins that they shine through.

The dash is covered in the same film of greasy layers as the insides of windows, and remember, our old coaches were smoked in, back when that was fashionable...

happy coaching!
buswarrior

[zimtok]

My 4104 had dark glass cylinder lenses around the bulb. They were held in by a spring and cup set-up. I removed them completely and now the dash is very bright.


.

[christopher]

i cleaned the glass, put in new bulbs and even new plastic colored covers. the just are not very bright. do reostats get worn over time. the appear to be clean?
thanx
chris
mci5c 78

[Stan]

To check the rheostat connect a voltmeter between the bulb hot wire and ground. Turning the rheostat should change the voltage from almost zero to full battery voltage. If you have full voltage going to the bulbs, then move your meter ground connection to the bulb socket shell. If you don't have full voltage, then you have a bad ground connection between the socket shell and bus frame.