Aftermarket instrument illumination.

[ram_man]

I had a blown bulb in my Saturn so i take the dash apart to get to the cluster and found out the bulbs from our old Saturn aren't the same, so i reinstall burnt bulb and the electrical board tore. My guess is to fix that would require replacing the whole cluster. So instead of that what is there after market wise that I can wire in that will illuminate the cluster. Thanks everyone.

 

[eljefino]

This era saturn has "opera lamps" that also front-light the gauges. It's not as bright as the rear lighting but it's something. You could have these and not know it if they are burned out, and there could be ways of making them brighter. I don't think they're on a circuit board, so you could plausibly splice the wires so they're always on the parking lights and not getting power through the dimmer.

 

[ram_man]

The top little circuitry ribbon where the bulb contacts is what tore....

 

[Spazdog]

you can probably get a electro luminescent lighted gauge kit.

They require taking the instrument cluster out and slipping on the covers then wiring into the panel power source. It can be delicate work but it's not too tricky.

I haven't seen one yet that illuminates the indicator needles well. It's usually a very dark needle on a lighted background.

You could always tap in with a wide viewing LED and .99 cent 194 base and hot glue or epoxy it in place. It's cheesy but it will buy you enough time to locate a replacement cluster.

 

[DBMaster]

How bad is the tear? How many traces tore? You can scrape the top layer of plastic and solder jumper wires across the tear(s). Or, perhaps even use aluminum repair tape (in the A/C section of hardware stores). Not a difficult fix.

 

[artificialist]

You can get a rebuilt cluster between $100-$150 from a local speedometer shop. Be prepared to dig in a phone book, and go to some small section of a big automotive building.