Just a quick note to mention what LED lights I have managed to find that fit in the various different light sockets available.
Due to the small sizes of some of the bulbs, I spent ages trying to find short ones that would fit.
Most of the internal bulbs turn out to be a standard "1156" or "BA15S".
To start with, I found these guys: http://www.led-cfl-lighthouse.com/page/1433625, and bought one of each of the single and double contact bulbs.
They had a really nice short single contact one, which would fit pretty much anything in the ZIL. Handily they have measuring tapes next to each one, which is important - the amount of crappy sites that don't give you measurements and you've just to guess is ridiculous, especially as usually LED lights are a lot bigger than the original ones you are trying to replace.
This one has a slightly cool light, but was only 1.2W, and was no dimmer than the originals.
For some reason, they don't sell any of these anymore, which is shame, and they didn't give a reason, which is a shame as I bought the last 2! They aren't cheap though.
Be careful that you check the bayonet fitting, as 2 I ordered had the lugs at different positions on each side of the bulb. Hopefully I can modify them somehow to fit.
For example: http://www.led-cfl-lighthouse.com/produ ... 35%2012VDC.
I ordered one of these, and luckily the lugs are symmetrical, even though the picture shows them as being asymmetric.
These are ~2W and a bit brighter than the shorter ones, but won't fit in the ceiling lights.
They will however fit in the indicator housings, but be warned that this may not be good for your electrical system.
The green indicator light in cab doesn't flash as bright as before, so sometimes it isn't immediately obvious that the indicators are still on.
On the outside they do flash at the right speed, so maybe it's not too serious.
Supposedly you can buy resistors to sort this out, but seems to negate some of the point of replacing them in the first place.
I have done several hundred miles with one of these in my right-hand indicator on the mud guard, and it has been fine.
I have still got 2 normal bulbs in the other 2 right-hand indicator lights, so I'm not sure what will happen if I replace any more.
Both double contact ones (for the "anglepoise" lamps in the back) had asymmetrical lugs and were therefore useless.
"Most economical" shipping seems to equal between 1 and 2 months(!) but they did get here without a problem once I paid the VAT.
Unfortunately there seems to be a £8 "handling fee" before the post office will deliver the package, which is pretty crappy as the VAT itself was only about £4
Anyway, next I found UltraLEDs, and bought some of these rather large looking equivalents:
http://www.ultraleds.co.uk/382-ba15s-24 ... w-43w.html
Surprisingly these will fit in the ceiling lights, although when they were delivered I thought there is no chance!
They are a lot brighter than the first ones I bought (and the originals), and give a similar colour to the original filament ones. I have now ordered more so I can replace all the internal ceiling lights with these.
Next, I wanted to replace the sidelights are they are rubbish.
I found that these ones just fit (they are quite long), and are very bright:
http://www.horizonleds.co.uk/cree-leds/ ... -led-bulbs
Allegedly CREE are better than non-CREE ones, but I don't know enough about them to comment.
How long any of these LED bulbs will last, I have no idea, but at least they won't flatten my batteries after a few hours.....
Lastly I had trouble finding a replacement (normal) bulb for the "searchlight" on the outside of the ZIL.
After looking at a lot of Russian-language sites, it turns out that this is an A12-50+21, eg:
http://www.medrk.ru/shop/index.php?id_g ... oods=10813
This kind seems to be listed on quite a few websites, so it's not particularly rare.
I thought I would try Todor from http://russianspares.com/, as other people on the forum said he was reliable.
Anyway, I sent him a message (this bulb wasn't listed on his site), and he said he could send me one for €3 + €4 shipping, which isn't too bad. I guess you can get it cheaper if you know what you're doing, but I had trouble getting this far
I didn't realise, but my searchlight switch has 3 positions, so I wonder if in other bulbs there are 2 filaments for 2 different brightnesses, but the one from Todor only works on 1 of the positions.
Would anyone like to comment on this or what other bulbs are available that would fit (LED or otherwise)?
I've not tried the searchlight in the dark yet, so I'm not sure how useful it will be.
Anyway, I think that's all I've got to say about bulbs for the moment
Let me know if you have any recommendations or comments!