A blog about finding and keeping my 1973 Mustang Grande (V8 - 351C 2V). Produced on July 6, 1973. Sold in Florida, USA.

Sunday, November 2, 2014

Putting back the instrument cluster

Time to fix the lights and put together my dash again!

First I wanted to renew the green glasses on the indicator lights.

They were letting go a bit so they had to go...

But where do you find new glasses? I know!

I cut them out of a cheap-ass folder. Perfect for the occasion ;-)

Ready to be glued on.

Voila. Easy peasy.

Next up the more serious part. First I need to remove the old crappy printed circuit.

Not all the lights can be replaced. I bought a led kit online which replaces most lights except for warning lights. But I had to take them all out anyway. Just incase I made sure I knew where they came from. I also removed the voltage regulator (square thing at the top right).

Right in the middle are 2 larger screws that sit on threaded rods attached to the fuel meter. Unfortunately one of the rods wasn't sticking in the meter so well anymore and spun around when I tried to get the nut off. Grrrr. Now I have to remove the whole back-side etc...

After a lot of careful screwing around I managed to get it out.

There is the reason the rod was moving along with the spinning nut. The plastic around it was cracked :-(

But I glued it back on and tested it by putting a bit of voltage on it carefully so make the meter move. And it worked! Nice!

Time to start putting the cluster back together.

First I put the fuel meter back in carefully and tested it one more time to make sure it was still working fine, which it was :-)

Then I put the new printed circuit on put in the new lights and the few old ones. Looking good eh?

Then I took it to my car and put it back in. You have to fiddle a bit to get the electric connector in. Also, make sure you hear a click when putting the speedometer cable back on, otherwise it's not connected properly.

I tested the indicators and... Bingo! I got indicator lights again :-)

Finally I put back the instrument panel and my car looks nice again with working indicator lights! :-)