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If you do not have instagram this is a 99-02 truck with an 03-07 style cluster minus the DIC. What I mean by this is that his needles are backlit white and the numbers are red. I have NEVER seen that before and that is the number one reason, other than the DIC, is so that I can switch my back lighting to all Red with white needles like most of the German cars. Blue is awful on the eyes and one of my biggest regrets on this truck.
If you can't see that this is basically what I am talking about. White numbers with purple needles
Last edited by shakenfake; Jun 22, 2022 at 10:46 AM.
I don't know exactly how it works but on the 99s the needles are whatever your backlighting is. There is no way to change it.
Also white doesn't work very well, I believe a different gauge face would fix that but I am unsure. Also that red LCD in the video is very unique. I knew that you could put a piece of stage lighting tape over it but that is like red red.
Here is a seller on ebay that looks like they have everything for this ( gm-gauge-repair ). They have gauge faces, needles, kits for the HVAC, steering wheel, etc, in white, red, green, blue.. I found where the needles on 99-02 are different length, and you will need the 99-02 specific to fit.
I wear my blublockers everywhere, and I'm only going with white or red. I'm used to euros too, I think they look better, and white numbers don't need to be as bright as red to see them.
I'm sure you know, but every time I see someone say the 99 NBS is unique I question that. I know 99 was a split year. There were 1999 OBS and 99 NBS models made that year. I always question if some how information gets mixed up by someone who isn't aware. There is a 99 classic and a 07 classic, that refers to the earlier model, (99 is OBS, and 07 is NBS). I find that odd that a 99 NBS is unique.
I don't know exactly how it works but on the 99s the needles are whatever your backlighting is. There is no way to change it.
Also white doesn't work very well, I believe a different gauge face would fix that but I am unsure. Also that red LCD in the video is very unique. I knew that you could put a piece of stage lighting tape over it but that is like red red.
Type 194 LEDs are the bulbs you need. They plug right in.
The 99-02 cluster has removable backlighting/needle bulbs, but they are fixed into the sockets, so you either need new sockets too when you change em out to new led or w.e. or de-solder the bulbs out of the sockets to re-use with new ones. It's almost easy. Our clusters and almost every interior switch or button that's backlit rely heavily on light diffraction using clear plastic pieces. The bulb shines into it and is reflected out in another area. Master window switch assembly has a few of em, headlight switch assy has one, rear wiper switch, etc. If you look at where the bulbs are positioned on the back of our clusters and then open it up and gently pull the board off the back of the assembly (don't need to mess with front side of cluster at all, needles will remain in place) and then look at the back of the clear plastic piece directly in front of it that the gauge face overlay sits on. It's one big piece. There's little cutouts in that clear plastic directly in front of the bulbs that are angled just right to carry the light through to guess where? Straight down to the holes where the air core motors mount. When you take the motors out you'll see more angled cuts right there so the light can get to the needles. That's how it was engineered to get enough light to the needles so people could see them at night. LEDs weren't cheap and abundant like they are now and they couldn't really have a hot incandescent bulb sitting in there close to the needles to illuminate them enough. They'd probably have a pretty short life. Most likely why they had the blue rubber caps on the factory bulbs to help contain the heat. So unless you take something and block off those angled cuts at the motor holes and then engineer some LEDs around them and block off the light from getting to the face overlay... it's not for beginners. I've been playing with mine but haven't had a lot of luck with that so far. I know there's an LED kit available for the 03-06 stepper motors so you can make the needles super bright and separate from the cluster backlighting.
Those kits won't work on our 99-02 air core motors and there is nothing equivalent for us that I'm aware of. There is a video on this I watched a while back. Can't remember who it was that did it.
Last edited by MagicianElectrician; Jun 22, 2022 at 11:52 PM.
Thank you Magician for explaining better than I could! But yes that is why the video and the picture I showed were so unique. Needles don’t have their own backlighting like they seem to do on the 03-07s. Those clusters commonly have much different stuff, not sure if they just put an extra bulb or what.
I think having lit up needles works better than whatever color the numbers are. Reading the gauges indirectly, is easier that way. If it wouldn't look trashy, I'd even consider using black light bulbs and some type of fluorescent paint on the needles.
Jun 22, 2022 | 09:32 AM
