Easy instrument cluster upgrade

[crgrbrts]

I'd been annoyed - ever so slightly - by a burned out backlight bulb on my K75S instrument cluster. Due to the promised inconvenience of replacing it, however, I'd simply tried to ignore it.

While looking for K75 series items on eBay the other day, however, I came across the offering of an LED instrument pod backlight upgrade kit. I bought one. It arrived Saturday and I spent about an hour or so installing it today.

Basically - its a matter of gettiing to the mounting bolts under the instrument pod (which may or may not require a fairing panel removal on one side, depending on your bike) unbolting and unplugging the pod, opening the back of the pod and replacing 5 light bulbs with LEDS (they're a direct replacement). It's a little bit of a tedious process, but not difficult at all. The instructions than come with the kit are very useful and price for the kit is not bad.

The result is evenly lit, bright (but not blinding) and very pleasant night lighting for the speedo, tach and clock display. I recommend this easy upgrade.

 

[TOM1911]

Do you have a link or address to this company?. Sonds like something I might need as well.

 

[crgrbrts]

The fella's name is Drake Smith. He's selling these kits on eBay. He can be contacted at smithduck@comcast.net . He's a K75S rider, too, and a nice guy.

Installing the LEDs is a bit of a chore, but worth it. On my K75S, I removed my windscreen (4 screws), the two screws under lower portion of the rubber windscreen pad, the left fairing (1 Allen bolt, two Allen screws, one hex bolt, and five Phillips head screws), and the fasteners securing the right side of the front headlamp cowling to the right hand fairing (two Phillips head screws and an Allen bolt). This drops the headlamp/cowling assembly and gets you to the underside of the instrument pod itself. You free it from the bike by undoing four more Allen bolts and a Phillips head screw (on the wiring harness cover) and unplugging the wiring harness. Then you take the pod inside the comfort of your home, clean it off, remove its back (another eight or nine screws) and replace the four perimeter backlight and clock backlight bulbs.

Reassembly, as the shop manuals so patronizingly inform us, is the reversal of disassembly.

If you don't have a cordless electric screwdriver, get one before performing this operation. You'll save a lot of time and may actually gave fun!

The LED kit fits all K75 variants plus the K100 and K1100, I think. If you have a "naked" K-bike, this upgrade is very easy.

 

[TOM1911]

Thanks for the info. I have a bulb that intermittently won't light on startup and I figure while i'm in there...

 

[colt03]

How about some Pics ?

TIA

 

[warredon]

This is probably the kit he is referring to. Click Here

 

[crgrbrts]

Yes, that's it. I didn't provide a link to eBay because some forum moderators are VERY sensitive to such things. I'm pretty new to this one, so I didn't wish to risk offending anyone.

 

[breyfogle]

At first I thought I might be interested in this upgrade. The one time cost was more than offset by the seller's claim to ...never open your instrument cluster again...
BUT
I don't think this is exactly accurate. The LEDs only replace the four speedo/tach backlighting bulbs and a special LED for the clock. All the idiot lights (two turn indicators, high beam, bulb monitor, alternator, low fuel) remain OEM bulbs. Not much gain (other than the cool factor).

 

[crgrbrts]

True enough - the indicator lights are still incandescent, but what are the odds of failure? They're energized relatively infrequently and for very short periods of time (with the possible exception of the turn signals). The backlight bulbs, on the other hand, are lit whenever the ignition's on.

One could, of course, replace ALL the bulbs with LED versions. It would be a little pricey, but they really would outlast the bike:

http://www.ledtronics.com/ds/WF200/

 

[ted]

I've never met Drake but have consistently heard top-notch things about him and his products.

As for the conversion, crgrbrts has a great point (not to mention that when the backlight bulbs do go out the absence of light until you have the time to go back in there, is truly annoying.)

 

[MysticRed]

One could, of course, replace ALL the bulbs with LED versions. It would be a little pricey, but they really would outlast the bike:

I purchased this kit from Drake and immediately noticed that the warning lights were to remain incandescent. He said there was not a LED bulb that gives satisfactory illumination so I bought all new bulbs for the warning lights as I hope to NEVER have to remove my cluster again!

 

[paul_f]

OK, on the advice of this thread and the fact that my console is not the easiest to read at night, I just ordered a kit. Now tell me, if it is easy to replace the lights, why do dealers say not to open the instrument cluster?

 

[crgrbrts]

I have no idea why dealers would advise one not to open the instrument cluster. It's not hermetically sealed (at least the one on my old K75S wasn't).

The step-by-step operation for removal, disassembly, lamp replacement, reassembly and replacement is not difficult. It is time-consuming, but that's only because of the number of fasteners one must remove and replace. (See my step-by-step procedure outline earlier in this thread).

One caution, though -- the lamp contacts are foil and are normally folded over the top edges of the individual lamp sockets. They're not particularly fragile, but can be accidentally folded under themselves when switching lamps to LEDs, resulting in no electrical contact to the new diodes. This mistake is easy to make but very easy to correct and does no permanent harm. If you discover you done this after reassembly, however, you've got to repeat the whole fiddly disassembly job to correct it.

Good luck -- it's worth it.

Craig