cracked dash replacement

[steinbl]

On my 97 Ram 1500, the dash cracked from windshield all the way across. I purchased a new one (top only) from the dealer. Now the fun part.

In an attempt to fix the cracked one, I took off the smaller piece of the dash and noticed that the defrost vents were screwed to the dash from underneath. This means to get the dash out, the vents must come out with it as a unit.

My question is how? I'm thinking there is a central place that the duck work slides into and if I can get to that, I simply unscrew it and it all comes out.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks
Lou

[BleedDodge]

I've had the whole thing apart but I don't even know how to explain it. It seems like once you get it to lift off, it will probably come away from the whole thing about 4 to 6 inches, just enough to get a screwdriver in there and pull everything off. I thought it was complicated, but I've had mine all apart before for changing stereos, lights, wiring, things like that. It's not that hard, just time consuming...

[steinbl]

I was not able to pull the whole thing up. I had the broken part about 1/3 closest to the driver side, the rest was unbolted but would not lift. So, you pulled it up and unscrewsed the two screws from each vent and reverse when you put it back in?

thanks for getting back to me.

Lou

[BleedDodge]

If that was the case, well I would think since the dash is fucked anyway you could just break the rest of it, since it must come out. You can't reuse a broken dash, so just rip it out and throw it away.

When you put the new dash in place, you'll be able to hook up the vents, and then drop the dash into where it's supposed to go, and then finish bolting everything up. Installation is probably way easier than removal on these dashes, since the whole thing can only be bolted in in stages, and getting it out would be way harder because you can't reverse the way you put it in, if you can understand that...