my right turn signal bulb is out, how do I get the speedo cluster out the change the bulb or does it have to come out?

Thanks!

 

You should not have to remove anything to get at the bulbs. Compared to today's cars, getting up under the dash on these old cars is a piece of cake. Just get yourself twisted around with your head up under the dash, with a flashlight, and you should be able to see behind the instrument cluster.

There will be several little flat fittings that mount in holes in the cluster. You twist these about 45 degrees one way or the other and pull them out. The lamps fit inside these. You can take the lamp still in the fitting over to your bench and hook it up to 12 volts to see if the bulb is OK. Make sure the contacts on the fitting, which press up against printed circuitry on the back of the cluster, are clean. You might want to give them a quick brush with some fine sandpaper.

In a situation like this, it REALLY helps to have a factory service manual diagram of the back of the cluster as it shows you specifically which bulbs are for the dial illumination and which are for the GEN, OIL, HOT, COLD, left and right turns signal, hi-beam, etc. indicators.

If you don't have a manual, go to the wildaboutcars.com website, join up if you're not a member (it's free), and find the Olds factory publication section. There is a '65 Olds Chassis service manual in pdf format, and you need the fourth document, section 12, page 12-4, figure 12-5. It shows the rear of the speedometer cluster. On page 12-5, figure 12-7, is the rear of the fuel gauge/indicator light cluster.

In the last of the electrical section documents, section 13C, page 13-88 is a chart of all lamp types used in your car. For the instrument cluster lamps, its bulbs 158 or 194. Either will work.

 

Thanks for all the info, and the wildabout cars, I feel like a teenager at the beach with noting but hot bods, yippee!

 

Even though the bulbs look the same, the wattage is different. Putting the wrong bulb into the socket can have some long term disadvantages, such as a melted piece of plastic that might not be easy to replace. Below is the wattage of each of the three bulbs. I suggest that you use the proper one. If there was no differance, then GM wouldn't have used different bulbs in different locations.
158 - 3.4w
194 - 3.8w
168 - 4.9w

 

No one is suggesting that he should use the wrong bulb. But the chassis service manual does say that either the 158 or the 194 bulb is acceptable for illumination and indicator lamps in the instrument cluster.

 

well I am making some progress, 4 new bulbs, got the driver's side brake light working and that same side turn signal works, still nothing on the passengers side tail lights, the lower socket is bad because it's loose, I can giggle it and get the light to come on but the upper one comes on but won't light up to turn or light up to brake.

I changed the bulb in the instrument cluster for the right turn and still nothing lights up when I use that turn signal and can't hear the blinking noise like the left side does. Would this a indicator that the switch itself is bad?