auto_editor

Howdy,

I am considering taking on the fool's errand of replacing all the little bulbs that don't seem to work in my '89's dash.

I am, of course, terrified.

Spring-clips and I have a long history of mutual loathing, and if no one (honestly) says replacing these bulbs--I have a non-blinking right green blinking arrow and no overall illumination on the left-hand side of my speedometer--is a piece o' cake, I'm leaving them alone.

[All the "wood" units that make up the dash/center stack fit perfectly right now, and that's something I usually can't say AFTER I take stuff apart.]

Oh, and is this climate control panel supposed to be lit in any way?



[I had to re-crop my radio question's pic as it's cold and rainy out now. Sorry.]

My rear defroster & tailgate window switches have in-dash lights that shine down on them, for instance, and my radio is backlit from within. Leaving this "crucial" panel unlit seems to me as something the wise folks at GM wouldn't have done, but you (OK, I) never know.


Thanks in advance,

Drew

rocketraider

Well, it's not as bad as you'd think, but it DOES require some disassembly. Dash lighting on these cars is nearly notorious for being dim or out.

The woodgrain trim pieces are held on by push retainers. Take off: lighter, radio ***** and headlight switch ****. The radio and light switch ***** have a spring retainer holding them on- use a 90 degree allen wrench or pick to release the spring and pull the ***** off.

Then- the vinyl "collar" where the steering column goes thru the dash needs to pull toward the steering wheel a little. Then pry out the dash piece below the column.

There are some phillips head screws holding the wood pieces on, above the radio and below the speedometer. Remove them and the wood pieces should pull off easy enough. Try to get your fingers behind the HVAC opening and pull straight back.

Once the wood pieces are out of the way, you can R&R components as needed to replace bulbs. Your HVAC control is lighted. You will have to remove it from dash to get to the bulb.

The speedometer lighting is tricky. There's no room to work from behind, so the speedometer has to come out to access the lamps. Once the WG piece is off, you will see some small hex-head screws holding the clear lens on. Take them off and remove the lens.

There are two phillips screws at top of speedometer bezel and a couple more hex-heads at the bottom. Remove screws and pull bezel. The speedometer should be accessible at this point. There are three , maybe four hex-head screws holding it to the dash.

Hopefully car has cruise control. If it does, disconnect the cable at the regulator and push it thru the dash, which should also push the speedometer out of the dash a few inches for access.

You will then see the instrument lighting. Turn lights on and see which ones are not burning. Then pull the lamp bulb itself out of the socket and push a new one in, a 168 or 194. My guess is they will light.

Reverse everything to put back to normal.

Up front, sometimes these sockets don't have a good enough connection to light the bulbs and you may have done it all for naught. Or you could be like me a few weeks ago changing out bulbs in my Custom Cruiser, and the damn socket pushed thru the plastic dash housing due to old age, dryrot and heat damage. There are none of these cars in the junkyards here now, so next day off I have, I'm going to install LED strips in the speedometer cluster and hope they'll function with the dimmer switch.