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Several of the indicator and instrument cluster backlight bulbs on my 2006 Jinma 284 have been burned out for quite some time. I have been looking for a replacement for a long time but my dealer couldn’t even find them listed. They sent me a small bulb kit and swore up and down it would fit.
The other day I had the instrument cluster out and pulled a bulb and started searching. I found an LED replacement that I thought would fit. Got 20 of them from Ebay for $6 including shipping so figured even if I was wrong it wasn’t too much to risk.
They are known in the auto industry as T5/T4.7 (12mm base size) Neo Wedge type bulbs. The only issue I had was since they are LED’s they must be installed with the correct polarity or they will not light up. Unfortunately the sockets are not marked for polarity so it is a guessing game. The good news is if it doesn’t light up, just take it out and turn it around 180° and re-install. All of the ones I installed worked and seem pretty bright.
Here is a link to the ones I bought. There are a lot of them out there in lots of colors if yo want something different.
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the next time you run into a polarity issue use a meter dc will read correct if wired correctly it will show negative voltage if reversed, so them you know to flip connections that need to be made. digital meters are good for this the old analog with needle movements no so much, I have seen tweaked needles from slamming backwards.
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Yeah, I could check the diode bias with a multi meter but they are so small it is easier to just flip them around than try to hold two probes in the right place while trying to hang on to that little socket.
With 50/50 odds, I only had to flip about 75% of them.
Hopefully I won’t have to replace them again, but I have plenty of spares now.
I also modified the cluster mounts so I don’t have to reach around the fuel tank to get the cluster out. I still have to make some little clamping brackets but that should be easy enough to do once I get the proper aluminum bar stock.
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