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! :-)