Instrument Lights??

[BillC]

Hi Guys. I just bought a 1979 M20J/201. Coming back last night I noticed the 6 pack (Altitude, Artificial Horizon, AS, VS, DG, TB)did not have background lighting. (The Radio stack does.) The POH says the instruments and gauges are lit by the glareshield bulbs, which all work fine. The gauges can be read easily but the 6 pack lighting is poor. Is this the case with all these model Mooneys or should I have background lighting for the flight instruments?

Sorry for the stupid question but I'm the only Mooney in town!!

Thanks for the help,

Bill

[jetdriven]

Our 77 J has no lit instruments other than the KI201C VOR indicator. Kinda surprising.  Now we have two attitude indicators, both lit, and a lit DG.  How we did it was send them for overhaul and pay an extra 100-150$ to convert them to the lighted bezel.  Instead of a 52D66 its now a 52D66M DG.  They needed overhaul anyways.  Replaced the turn coordinator with a Castleberry lit AI.

EDIT ours has the single knob for "panel lites"

[pilot716]

I have an 83J with 2 knobs for lighting. 1 for the glareshield and one for the instrument backlighting along with those small L shaped lights that you can point at the instruments. I am not sure if that is standard or was added to ours.

[DC_Mooniac]

I have the same thing as pilot716 in my 78J.

[BillC]

I don't have these 'L' shaped lights your talking about. Any chance I could get a photo?

Again, thanks so much for the responses.

Bill

[FlyDave]

My 1982 J has the 2 knobs as described by Pilot716. One for the eyebrow lights on the glareshield and the other for the <<standard>> post lights (on all instruments) that you find in most other planes. I can take pictures in the hangar this evening if you would like to see what mine look like.

In my previous airplane (Cherokee 140) I installed Nu-Lites. They are the LED ring lights that have one LED on each ring. Another brand has one bulb (not sure if it's incandecent or LED) and a fiber optic strand feeding each ring. The Nu-Lites are fantastic and I highly recommend them if you're adding lighting for each individual linstrument. Since the post lights were in my Mooney when I bought it and I like how they light the instruments, I'll keep them.

[BillC]

Thanks FlyDave but I know about the individual post lights. No picture necessary. Mine also has the two knobs to adjust the light intensity. Both work fine but unfortunately, none of the 6 pack instruments are lighted. Seems odd that there aren't any. I guess I'll figure something out. I would like to see the 'L' shaped lights pilot716 and Mooniac were talking about though.

Thanks for the help.

 Bill

[OR75]

Bill

my instrument pannel is lit with the glareshield lights (iike yours) and it is very sufficient.

Suggesting you check your glareshield for adjustment (including maybe cleaning the semi-opaque plastic part that covers the bulbs). Also, how is you light intensity variator/adjustment working ?

[danb35]

The NuLites aren't actually LEDs but small incandescent bulbs (unless they've changed them in the last year or so).  That said, they work great and would be well worth installing.  Bill, are there no over-the-shoulder lights in the headliner of your plane?  I think that's what pilot716 is talking about.  Post lights would be mounted at the instrument itself and (IME) don't work too well.

For whatever reason, it's pretty unusual to have internally-lit flight instruments.

[carusoam]

Bill,

You can search this site for additional info on post lights, nulites and LEDs.  Also some replacement ideas for the overhead spot lights.  Good luck with the new ship.

 

Byron,

Nice idea to add lights to the instruments.

 

Best regards,

-a-

 

[tony]

I replaced my post lites with nulites as well.  I think if you do go down that road, you will be pleased with the results.  Pretty easy, mine needed a bit of triming to fit and just a log book entry.

[BillC]

Thanks so much for all the help guys.

To OR75:  I'm going to take your advise and start with cleaning the glareshield bulbs. Both rheostats are working properly. Thank you.

To danb: I didn't notice over the shoulder lights but I'll check tomorrow. Thank you. 

To 'a': Thanks for the tip on doing a search on the forum. I'll check it out now. Thank you

This forum is great!! Having you guys to ask for advice is an incredible benefit to me as I'm sure it is to all of you .  And by the way......I LOVE THIS MOONEY!!!!  Should have done it years ago.

Thanks again,

Bill

 

[jlunseth]

Same here on the nulites.  I had them installed when the panel was redone two years ago and took the post lights out.  The nulites are excellent.