Cluster Removal Tricks

[slexwild]

I am working to replace the standard cluster with one of my police units. There is absolutely no slack from the cable harness and the speedo cable. Any Tricks other than prying the thing aggressively? One youtube video showed he just pulled it out fill force, but just thinking ahead on putting it back in and the lack of cable slack.

[kishy]

With all of the surrounding trim off, and possibly the dash pad too (I think it buys a fair bit of extra space at the top for the cluster to be in, buying room for your hand below), pull firmly but smoothly on the cluster and I think you'll find you get a little bit of slack out of the cable. Not much, but enough. Then, snake a hand behind the cluster (as I recall it's usually most possible to sneak the hand in from the bottom right) and release the speedometer cable. The most you'll be able to get on it is one or two fingers so you need to be good at working blind.

The speedometer cable is by far the more difficult item so don't worry about the wiring connector until after the cable is undone.

Be sure to completely disconnect and remove the shift indicator collar from the column first, otherwise you are guaranteed to break it.

Steering wheel will need to be tilted down; if this is a non-tilt car, consider removing it.
Shifter will need to be down in probably 1, so consider wheel chocks depending on your workspace.

[Tiggie]

Sometimes you can grab the cable where it goes into the car and give a good shove and it will give you some extra slack. I do not advise you to jerk on the cluster.

[kishy]

Sometimes you can grab the cable where it goes into the car and give a good shove and it will give you some extra slack. I do not advise you to jerk on the cluster.

On reflection, yes, this is a better suggestion.
The clusters are now 40 (give or take) years old and the likelihood of straight-up breaking one grows by the day.

There generally is some slack in the cable (maybe more accurately, the sheath of the cable) and you just need to find it. Pushing it in from outside is a safer option.

[87gtVIC]

I’ve always reached in from under the dash for removing the speedometer cable from the cluster. It ain’t the easiest but I have some long arms and prefer doing it that way. I grab the collar, squeeze and push into the cluster then pull upwards and out.

I actually have more issues removing the harness. The one release clip is right up against the back of the cluster and is always a bugger.

[DerekTheGreat]

^^^This. A friend with extremely long & nimble fingers would help. Arthritus does not.

[slexwild]

Out of ignorance and failed google searches, where does the speedocable come through the firewall?

[87gtVIC]

Near the accelerator pedal behind the carpet.

[slexwild]

Thank you for all for the help. Got it out a while back, but putting the cable back, I am about to crash out. Any advise on how to gain leverage to push the cable into the cluster? I have some long plyers, but for the life of me I cannot get enough pressure to get the cable to clip back in.

[sly]

Take note of the outer clip. There is one side with the clip that grabs. Make sure that gets over the shaft on the speedo head and then press on from the back. It's a battle of angles more than anything else. When it gets lined up, it will clip in pretty easy. You may have to spin the speedo head just a little bit to get the cable to go in correctly.

[86VickyLX]

Remove the radio. Bend the bracket to the left of the radio opening and reach your arm behind there and you can reach the speedometer cable clip to disengage it from there it'll just be undoing the electrical connection. This is the easiest way to do it without messing with the cable and potentially causing a bouncing speedometer later. It also makes it much easier to reattach the speedometer cable to the cluster.

[slexwild]

One more question if anytone has any insight. I was getting a dead speedo on reinstall. I noticed that when i removed the cluster again. The speedo cable was not moving. If I wound the cable manually backwords it would spin again until i stopped. Then it would go dead. Did I mess up the cable? Is it stretched to far as in could it be pinched?

[sly]

If the cable doesn't spin when the transmission is turning, it's either not seated properly in the transmission, or the gear in the transmission is damaged/missing. If you trimmed the cable so it would stop binding up, you may have trimmed too much. I've only ever needed to trim about 1/4 of an inch off to get it to fit right. I've installed a couple replacement speedometer cables just due to old ones burning through on the exhaust or rotting out.

[slexwild]

I never trimmed the speedo cable, just had the shop pull it through more through the transmission tunnel. They might have gone too far.

[sly]

Verify the other end is actually installed on the transmission and fully seated. If it's not actually installed and just pulled into place, that would be why it's not working.