Am I the only one having trouble reaching the light bulbs in the instrument cluster? Usually on a GM car it's no big deal to pull the whole cluster...but this one looks like a big deal indeed to do it that way. Anybody know a good way to do this?

 

I tried everything short of removing the whole cluster and was really ticked that I could not get those bulbs out...I disassembled from the front and worked my way deeper and deeper until I reached the bulbs but couldn't find a way to pluck them out of the sockets ...and my hands are too large to get at anything from the rear... so I just left the darn things there and went to Tims for a coffee.

 

Shop book procedure actually calls for replacing the dash bulbs from the front.

Remove: dash cluster bezel, cluster lens, inner bezel, speedometer cable from head, speedometer head. Get the speedometer head out the way and then pull the lamps out of their socket, leaving the socket in place. They're 194/168 lamps and will pull straight out of the sockets- no need to turn and pull.

Fairly simple on a cruise control car since you can disconnect the speedo cable at the transducer and pull the speedometer out far enough to access the lamps.

Cluster removal should be necessary only if the lamp socket or printed circuit is bad.

If it's the RH cluster lighting out, that seems to be a fairly common problem on these cars. I finally quit trying to keep mine burning. It lights sometimes, other times not, and completely random when it does it.

 

Actually, no. The CCC cars use a VSS for the computer, which also replaces the transducer for the cruise module (which becomes a solid state electronics box under the dash). There is only one speedo cable from the trans to the speedo head.

 

Ya gotta remember my 83 wagon was a Diesel and as such didn't have that CCC nonsense...

 

As I sit here and ponder the universe it has occured to me that the problem with the off and on bulbs is the little ears on the sockets are too flat and need to be bent outward a little...did this on the two seater Chebby a while back and it stopped that off and on nonsense... but you have to remove the socket to do this...

 

That's certainly a common problem, but I have also seen the plastic housing get overheated and distorted at the bulb holder, causing contact problems. This happened on the speedo lights on my 84 Custom Cruiser.