I have a new bezel but can't figure out how it comes out. 72, thanks

 

Yes you can remove it without pulling the dash. Its a bit of a pain, but here's some photo of a couple dashes out of the car. The wiring harness is pulled, so you'll have a little more clutter to work around but if your hands are small, or you have a helper with small hands it can be done.


The surround here is what you want to replace, correct?


First you need to remove the ****/shaft that you pull on to turn the lights on. The backside of the headlight switch has this little button with a spring around it.


Press the button in, then pull the **** out. You might have to push the **** in and pull it out a couple times to make it release.


Now once you have this out you can remove the nut that holds the bezel on. There's four slots designed for a specific spanner which I don't have. I'll use a small screwdriver and gently tap it, rotating in a counter clockwise direction. Moving from one slot to another.



Once the nut is out the switch on the back of the dash will fall off and you can gently pry the bezel out. I've not done this in many years, but here's a few more photos of the area behind the dash, and a dash with the switch/bezel removed for you to see what it looks like.







Let us know if you run into any problems or have any additional questions.

 

Good tutorial.

 

Great, thanks so much for the info and pictures. I'll try it today. Maybe I can replace the light for it also.

 

man I searched for that button for an hour. Finally figured out it was on the right side of switch. I had to loosen the nut first to rotate switch to push button. painting the light and back side of new bezel to match my blue lights👍

 

I'm glad you got it out! Yes, this is one of those tasks that can be tedious!

 

One last issue. When I insert the rod back in the switch it won't stay in. When I pull it comes all the way out. I've tried holding the button too. Any ideas?

 

I had one fail that way on a Ford, Is your switch new ?

 

Are you pushing it in all the way? You should be able to just push it in and have it stay. Note the shape of the end of the rod. Once the beveled end goes in the notch should hold it tight.

 

Yeah it would go in all the way,I think the button was kinda on a slant so I bought a new switch. The rod popped right in. I taped the light bracket to the switch to make it easier to thread nut into both. Now the light doesn't work. Could the tape be preventing a ground connection? This project is a pain.....

 

very likely

 

Well I got the tape off and reinstalled it but the light still doesn't work. Maybe I broke the wire.....

 

Can you test the ground? If you can crawl underneath the dash try testing it before you pull everything again.

 

how would I test the ground? I'm a novice at electrical but I have a tester. I'm not sure what it grounds to. Seems like the back of the bezel doesn't have any metal connection.

 

The light housing is metal, and its grounded to the metal dash frame through the flat metal strap. The headlight switch is also grounded through a metal strap that's attached where the plastic dash bolts to the metal dash support. If you have a tester with the alligator clip on a wire, then a sharp metal point on the other end you can ground to the metal body with the clip and press the point into the light.