Light Bulbs

It seems that a constant thread on several message boards pertaining to M37's and such is what bulb to use in the various lights, especially when changing from the military 24 volt systems to a 12 volt system or when ordering replacement bulbs at a local parts house. 

The bulb use and parts cross numbers that I used on my truck are:

Application 12v Bulb Number 24v Bulb Number (what I had before converting)
Small bulb in front marker lights and taillights, dash lights 67 or a 97 (both work) 1251
Large bulb in taillights 1156 1683
Headlight 55-60 watt H4 70-75 watt H4
Turn signal indicator (in switch housing) 1445 313

A nice chart showing 6, 12, and 24 volt bulbs including drawings showing the base types may be found at Jeff Smith's MVPC web page.

Pete, another M37 owner, sent me a MS Excel spreadsheet with bulb information from GE.   The spreadsheet includes a lot of information such as bulb dimensions, power consumption, output, and life expectancy.  It may be downloaded from here.

Ed sent me the following note on August 4, 2004:

"My local NAPA store said I could NOT buy ONLY three "1251" light bulbs for my front instrument panel.  I had to order a box of 10!!!  NAPA's price is about $3.50 a bulb.  I was not going to pay $35 for light bulbs.  After searching the internet, low and behold, I found a source for these.  I ordered a box of 10 (yep!) from a pinball supply house in San Francisco AND the price was LESS than 2 bulbs from NAPA!!!!  $6.50 for a box of ten. (there's a small shipping charge of a couple of bucks.)  The place is Bay Area Amusements. http://www.bayareaamusements.com/   Ordered online Sat afternoon and they arrived in Monday's mail, here in NJ.
Their shipping was quick.   Their part number is LB-1251.  Just another source that's inexpensive.


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