Kel-Lite 7 C Cell LED Upgrade

I have a 7 C Cell Kel-Lite I've had since the late 70's. A few cells leaked inside and I used a 1" dowel to hammer them out and I'm in the process of cleaning the residue from the inside. I need to find an appropriately sized brake hone to finish the cleaning process.

It was originally equipped with a PR-20 bulb and about 10 years ago I installed a Maglite 7 Cell C&D Krypton Replacement Lamp LMSA701. It appears the element in the Krypton bulb is broken. I want to replace it was an LED Bulb. My initial thought is to use the LED upgrade designed for the 6 Cell Mag-Lite. Would using a dummy battery to reduce my battery count to 6 be appropriate or would the 6 cell LED work with 7 C cells?

Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

I cleaned it up, reassembled and replaced the bulb with an original PR-20. As you can see... It WORKS!!

So... any suggestion on a LED upgrade?

That's a pretty rare light. There's not going to be any sort of pre-made dropin or even someone selling LED upgrade parts. You have two possibilities- you can compare measurements and see if any existing dropins or mod parts will fit, or you can make your own.

Your big issue is getting the heat generated by any high-performance LED out of the light. Otherwise, all you can accomplish is a low to medium output light. The question then is why you want to do this. If you love the light and want to mod it, that's cool, but that would be the only reason to use this as your base light. You can get mod-ready Mags for pocket change. If you just want something bright, you can get a nice, pocket-sized light that runs on CR123 batteries for around $40. And it weighs one twentieth of the Kel. If it's practicality you're after, an 18" flashlight isn't a candidate. If you're looking for a mod platform, spend $20 on a new Mag and do the Jayrob mod. On the other hand, with the battery possibilities of that monster, you could drive the snot out of one of the mega power diodes. Another possibility is to go incan. Take a look at some of the Mag incan mods on the site.

The LED upgrade for the Mag really doesn't put out a whole lot more light than their standard bulb. What you would have is a light that will run for days.