88-94 radio lights

[chevilex]

Down the rabbit hole, now that I see these are end-of-life items...

I did not know about these bulb size standards; found this video with a great explanation of how to figure out their size:

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The bulb with the grey base from the radio says 14V and 1.4W, so that means 0.1A. I measured one bulb and get 4.7mm diameter; that's ~ 3/16" so it's a T1 1/2, 14V, 0.1A. I read either here (or elsewhere; these are used in all sorts of cars) that, if the base is in good shape, you can buy bulbs with long leads and just wind them through. So the part number I linked before may lead to shortened life / wrong brightness as this appears to be an EW10 bulb if you go by this list:

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Looking at this list, I think the EW87 bulb would be way too bright (look at the "lumens" column).

If we believe all this, it seems the only way to get an EW10 bulb is with the wrong base. It looks like you can buy the EW87 bulbs by themselves. The EW87 with the correct base (which I linked before) is not stocked anymore. I'm not sure what to believe; there's nothing in their website with an EW10 and the correct base.

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I measured one climate controller bulb at 0.164" (4.2mm) diameter; 0.164/0.125 = 1.3 so let's call that a T1 1/4 bulb. Sadly there's nothing informative on the base.

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We can assume 14V (everything is connected to the dimmer) but not sure about the rated power. There are a lot of 14V bulbs of this size...

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The 8640 and the DW10 both have the same lumens as the presumed radio bulb; not sure if that's something to go by, but I've got nothing else... The 8640 looks like a shorter lifetime version. The DW10 can be bought as a bare bulb or with the correct base.

I'm going to try to get some and report back...

 

[chevilex]

Alright, here's what I installed:
Radio - I took EW10 bulbs off these and installed them in the original bases.
Climate controller - I bought the DW10's with the correct base.

The radio looks dimmer than the climate controller, which makes me think the radio actually takes EW87 bulbs.
The new bases on the climate controller bulbs are pretty tight when you try to twist them on. One of them stripped.

The illumination difference is hard to see in the photos, but it's easy to see in the truck. Buttons are not very even either, but maybe they're pretty grimy.

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[drdoom]

Great write up on this Chevilex! I have a question for you though concerning getting the same brightness level between the Radio and AC unit. If you reused the original bulb bases for the radio, is there anything that would have prevented you from using the DW10 bulbs instead of the EW10?

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