How far to go with Dash swap?

[foothilltom 33]

Hi guys,

 

As you may recall, I bought a "donor car" for my resto project -- mostly for the deluxe interior. In addition to the seats, door panels, trim panels, etc., I am thinking about swapping the entire dash (since it has the cool faux-wood-grain) and would like to get a feel for the complexity.

 

I am most certainly going to take the dash pad (mine is a disaster), so my questions are specific to taking out the dash itself (and the wiring puzzle that will ensue).

 

Is it considered relative rocket-science to remove the dash? I have the Chilton manual and a wiring diagram. Does anybody have any bits of advice or tips for avoiding breaking both cars electrically? ;)

 

The last question concerns buying a new wiring harness. Can any recommend that as something to do "while i'm in there"? As always, advice is most appreciated.

 

Tom

[Pakrat 1,043]

The dash pods aren't hard to swap if they are apple to apple. If say your woodgrain one is a deluxe with tach and you current one is standard then you will have to do some rewiring (not my thing) otherwise it would be a simple plug and play. Same goes for passenger, if replacing a non clock with a clock. Word of warning, even though you think you have all the scews removed, do not force it out if it doesn't come out easy, there will almost always be a surprise scew you didn't see.

 

Check the printed circuit board for cracks or wear and all the bulbs before reinstalling. My battery and wiring were out so I bought a 9 volt connector lead at radio shack for .25 and borrowed a battery from the smoke detector to verify the bulbs, just touch the two end leads to the base.

[bnickel 10,004]

i'm guessing that both cars have the non-tach dash, if so it's just a simple plug and play swap both standard and deluxe clusters use the printed circuit and all the wiring is the same, you can swap the wiring for the clock from one car to the other as well, once you start pulling the wiring off the donor car you'll see what you need to take for the clock.

 

when you remove the dash pad the passenger side pod should come out with the pad, just have to remove the 3 or 4 screws along the bottom of the passenger side pod above the glove box. the driver side guage cluster will stay in place since it is actually bolted to the metal frame behind the dash, once the dash pad is removed you'll see how to remove the gauge cluster.

[cramer 12]

Hello,

 

"Check the printed circuit board for cracks or wear and all the bulbs before reinstalling. My battery and wiring were out so I bought a 9 volt connector lead at radio shack for .25 and borrowed a battery from the smoke detector to verify the bulbs, just touch the two end leads to the base."

 

I would love to be able to check my bulbs...

any images or links on what to get at radio shack? Also what/where is the base to touch the two leads?

 

Thanks,

 

Marc Cramer

[Pakrat 1,043]

I'm sure they have fancy meters that would do the same thing to test the bulbs, I'm just to cheap to buy one, lol. It's just a regular 9V connector like this, if you have an old radio or toy or anything that uses a 9V volt battery you can just rip it out too.

 

 

They keep them in a big file draw so you have to ask for it, not the kind of thing you find in a package on a shelf.

 

Your bulb looks like this attached picture, as you can see once removed there are just two small tabs of metal that stick out of the base which make the contact. You just need to touch the bare leads from the conenctor to each side it will light the bulb if it is good. Sometimes you have to move it around though to make good contact, don't just assume it's bad because you touched it and it didn't light the first time.

[3906pack 10]

You can just do a continuity test on both poles of the bulb to tell you if they are good or not.