Instrument cluster service.

MarkCan · 2020-09-02

Part 1, Removal Remove the front of the plastic bezel. It is held in place by 3 tabs at the top and small hooks at the bottom. Gentle press on the marked locations and pull it out just a tiny bit. We are not removing it yet, just freeing up the clips. Once all the clips are free the top part can be pulled farther out. This in turn will free up the small bottom hooks. Carefully wiggle it out without scratching the glass. Take out the 4 screws holding the cluster in. They are at 8:30, 10:30, 1:30 and 3:30 locations. Place the towel over the steering wheel and pull the cluster out ever so slightly. (An inch or two) Disconnect the top centre connector first. Press down on the middle tap to release the safety and gently wiggle it out. Now you can move the cluster little more but still pay attention as those wires are short. Disconnect the remaining plugs in the same way as the first one. Take the cluster out. Right side up first on the 45deg. This way the odometer pin will clear much easier. To be continued...

3304 Views 9 Replies 5 Participants Last post by John533i, Sep 10, 2020

MarkCan

Discussion Starter · Sep 3, 2020

Part 1,
Removal

Remove the front of the plastic bezel.
It is held in place by 3 tabs at the top and small hooks at the bottom.

Gentle press on the marked locations and pull it out just a tiny bit. We are not removing it yet, just freeing up the clips. Once all the clips are free the top part can be pulled farther out. This in turn will free up the small bottom hooks. Carefully wiggle it out without scratching the glass.
Take out the 4 screws holding the cluster in. They are at 8:30, 10:30, 1:30 and 3:30 locations.
Place the towel over the steering wheel and pull the cluster out ever so slightly. (An inch or two)
Disconnect the top centre connector first. Press down on the middle tap to release the safety and gently wiggle it out.

Now you can move the cluster little more but still pay attention as those wires are short. Disconnect the remaining plugs in the same way as the first one.
Take the cluster out. Right side up first on the 45deg. This way the odometer pin will clear much easier.

To be continued...

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capisce

· #2 · Sep 3, 2020

Had to do that myself. Tried to fix the dash lights, worked for a while so I have to go back again.
Great write up and I hope that you are trying to fix the same problem I had.
On my ready list!

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pantera928

· #3 · Sep 3, 2020

Thank you

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MarkCan

Discussion Starter · #4 · Sep 3, 2020

capisce said:
Had to do that myself. Tried to fix the dash lights, worked for a while so I have to go back again.

With regards to the cluster lights, one need to stay with the conventional bulbs. There are very few LEDs that work in our classic application. You may have had some sort of success In the past with a certain brand just to find that now the bulb is no longer there.

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MarkCan

Discussion Starter · #5 · Sep 3, 2020

Does anyone have a dead cluster, speedo or tach collecting dust? It must be original though, never fixed before.
I could put it to a good use. And let all benefit from it.

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SkipR

· #6 · Sep 3, 2020

I removed my cluster a while back. The plastic plugs in the back were really brittle and parts of the clips broke off super easy. And getting the plugs back in place was a pain, but they're staying in place, even with a broken clip.

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MarkCan

Discussion Starter · #7 · Sep 4, 2020

I just came back from a test drive. All in good working order now. All gauges, all lights.

Even the Air Bag light is on.

I guess PO couldn’t/didn’t want to fix it so he took the bulb out.
Time to get some rest.

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capisce

· #8 · Sep 4, 2020

A common problem, apparently, is that the fuel and voltage instruments lights are bright but the rest are off.
This is explained by a faulty ground since both sets have different grounds.
I had that problem, removed the instrument panel, fumbled with the grounds. Replaced everything.
All lights worked for a while and then back to the original problem.
It's annoying only while driving at night,that I avoid anyhow, since the headlights suck.
( Of course, when compared to those of my F150 truck with it's blindingly huge lighthouse beams

)

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MarkCan

Discussion Starter · #9 · Sep 7, 2020

Part 2

I know by now few people got their instrument clusters on the bench. So here we go;

Find yourself a suitable piece of foam to rest the cluster on. We need to pay attention to that trip odometer reset pin and not break it.

There are 4 screws holding the gauges to the rest of the cluster. Remove them and pull the top part off.

Now loosen the 3 marked screws so they stick out a bit but still hold. Do not remove them yet. Using the solder sucker, wick or any other tool at your disposal clean up the connection points marked in yellow. There are pins under the solder. (One can see this cluster was already serviced before)
Carefully remove the screws as the tach will drop.
Now, the small board can be detached from the holding clips on the tach.

Examine the physical condition of all the connections, loose wires, cracks on the board, burn/overheating marks.
You may need to replace components as I did. I would love to post exactly what you need to do. Please believe me nothing ticks my clock more. At this point though I still don’t have the original unit (with factory values) and don’t want to create confusion. Just in case there is an issue down the road. (I do have access to the tools to run the on board testing so I was able to experiment.)
Please post the pics of the board and your problem. I’ll try to help.

Apply the same theory to the speedometer. Examine the gears, clean the hardened lube residue. I used the 50 weight silicon oil on a q-tip to do it.
Inspect all bulbs. Replace as necessary and above all do not use LEDs.

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John533i

· #10 · Sep 10, 2020

MarkCan said:
With regards to the cluster lights, one need to stay with the conventional bulbs. There are very few LEDs that work in our classic application. You may have had some sort of success In the past with a certain brand just to find that now the bulb is no longer there.

There's at least one write up here where guys used LED's, and how they did it with a little modification. I followed another write-up that used a bit brighter bulb with out getting too hot. I'm pretty happy with those in the cluster and the console. My issue now is that one of the screws came out of the tach face plate, and I have to look at it sitting in the bottom of the tach

Also, the tach is now not working in colder weather, unless I conk the gauge pod with my fist. And that sometimes doesn't work LOL.

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