dash lights

anyone here have dash light bulbs blowed? could i take the dash pad off and take out the speaker and reach down behind the instrument panel and change the bulbs? 1990 rs.

You mean behind the insturment cluster??
No you cant.. its easy to pull the cluster out though

actually.. Now that I think of it.. You might be able to reach in behind there??

But to pull the cluster out takes about 5 minutes

1990 rs, eh? cant get them from dash, you gotta take cluster out. not to difficult. what you'll need are: T30 Torx screwdriver; 9/32" or 7mm socket/screwdriver; standard screwdriver; a flashlite or other lite; a long screwdriver, depending on size/flexibility of hands and that should be it.

1. disconnect battery.

2. take off the kick panels under steering wheel and by pedals. the one by pedals you will just hafta unsnap from the one under steering wheel. no need to take that all the way off. you will need the T30 for this, there are 3 at the bottom, and 2 near top, probly behind the little plastic plugs.

3. black kick panel thing should then pop off with only a lil effort. next, grab the 9/32" (or 7mm) and unscrew the little black bolts holding the black bezel in front of instrument cluster. there should be 2, one on either side of steering column.

4. the headlight knob must be removed. look directly under the headlight switch and look up and you will see a little metal button. turn headlites on, and then push the button, and you may have to wiggle it a little but the knob should pull out. (dont worry bout headlites, battery disconnected rite?)

5. the rest of the black instrument cluster bezel is held on by snaps, it should just snap out, you will want to disconnect the cigar lighter, rear window defogger and foglites (if you have any of those) and lower the steering wheel (if you have tilt) and slide the bezel out.

6. using the 9/32" (or 7mm), unscrew the black screws holding the cluster in, i believe theres 2 on top and 2 on bottom, total of 4. this will free the cluster. if you cannot slide the cluster out from steering wheel easily, you can use a 1/4" socket to remove clear plastic cover over it, there are 3 on top and i believe 2 on bottom and slide that out, then the cluster. you can also try removing the front screws of the dash and lift the dash up and try sliding the cluster intact that way. be careful when sliding the cluster out, the reset button for the trip odometer easily gets hung up on the steering wheel, etc. also, if you have tilt, try removing the tilt lever, by unscrewing it, that should ease in removal also.

7. indicator bulbs are along the top, and around the tachometer, closest to the tach connections. there are a few vacant spots on the back, dont worry bout those. there are 4 illumination bulbs, and theres one on lower left by tach, one next to the volt and temp guages, one next to the oil and gas guages, and one on lower right by speedometer. on mine they were a different color than the others, i think black and the indicators were grey. lastly, the small ones in the triangle shape are of course the turn signals and the hi beams indicators. the bulbs do not come out of the little sockets, so you will have to find ones that are molded into the sockets in the store or find some where you can replace the bulbs at a junkyard or older thirdgen or wherever. if you can do this, i would recommend doing all of the bulbs while you have it apart. you can also convert to leds, which is not too hard of a process, if you are good with soldering, they last alot longer, and depending on the color, etc, can really make the cluster look unique. for example, im using red ones as the illumination and hyper whites as the indicators. looks awesome at nite.

8. assembly is the reverse of the removal. make sure you dont hurt any of the wire traces on the back of the cluster when putting it back in, and make sure screws on the cluster itself are tight, but not so much to strip the threads. if its loose, the guages will not function properly and you will have to take everything apart and tighten them again. head lite switch should just slide back in and just push all the way in and it will shut lites off, like it normally would. as a test, reconnect the battery to ensure the bulb(s) you installed work, remembering headlites are on from pulling the switch out or just turn key for indicators. if everything works put it all back together and take a nap or grab a beer :cool:

hope this helps - hellraiser
btw: if you need pics to help you along :dunno: , or you get stuck :swear: ,email me at [e-mail address removed by moderator] and ill try gettin some posted, or help ya out, which ever you need

god that was alot of typing :22yikes:

lol.. yeah i wasnt about to get into detail..

hehe yeah had nothin better to do, plus i did it bout 20 times already cough cough :attention i mean umm

yer tellin me.. lol.. I made my own custom gauges so I had to pull em' out and put em' in 150 times before they were all in and somewhat calibrated.. Had quite a few problems, but turned out really nice