Re: Lights out on digital dash of 86 Coupe GT

[rdh@sli.com (Robert D. Houk)]

    OK, it's a dead bulb.  Two days later, the second one went out.  OK.  
   Today, the bulb for the speedometer went out.  A pain but now I can just 
   replace all 3 at once, right.  Almost.  Tonight, the speedmeter bulb came 
   back on --- yuck!  I've never heard of a bulb coming back to life.  This 
   sounds like an intermittant issue.  Does anyone have any suggestions? 

Other than the proverbial loose/dirty contacts, cold-solder joints on
PCboards, and the like, I have many times seen bulbs resurrect them-
selves. If the filament merely burns out and separates, leaving two 
dangling filament-strands, you can sometimes resurrect the bulb by
somehow contriving (shake/jiggle/etc. the bulb) to get the two strands
to re-contact each other while power is applied -- they will "spot-weld"
themselves back into a single filament. I've seen the resultant repaired
filaments last from minutes to months...so if you have the thing apart
to get to the bulbs, just replace the bulbs, it's easier!

If the filament has depositied itself as a metalic coating all over the
inside of the bulb, or is sitting in assorted pieces "on the ground" (of
the bulb), then you're out of luck...

					-RDH