Hey all
Just picked up a used Speedometer for my 73
The current one is not the original...shows KPH as well as MPH and the trip odometer is broken.

Anybody have any hints on swapping out the Speedometer?
Remove the dash, dash pad,Engine, rear end,tires,paint ect

Honestly, any tips would be welcome
Thanks
Bob

 

Hi Bob

If your speedometer works ( besides the broken odomoter ) and it fits in my 1968 Corvette - I could be interested to buy it - since I live en Denmark where we have KPH.

Please send a few pics of it to: bankmand@privat.dk

/Claus

 

Once I get it out you can have it free of charge (I only require you pay shipping)
Remember, It shows both KPH and MPH
The odometer works great, It's the trip odometer that doesnt work (well, it still clocks miles but you cant reset it back to zero)

Heres a pic of it, http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i3...t/Interior.jpg the MPH is larger than the KPH.. hope you can deal with that
Let me know
EDIT* You do realize the face is white rather than green as your 68 should be????

 

This is how I removed my 68 drivers dash pad last weekend. Looks like your 73 removal will be similar.

Remove the drivers seat.

First I removed the plastic trim pieces that surround the steering wheel column. Next, along the bottom of the dash, I removed the windshield override switch, and the odometer trip set bracket. The steering wheel column is supported under the dash by three bolts. (Two were in plain sight, the other was a little harder to see.) When you remove these three bolts, you can push the steering wheel column down about an 1 1/2 inch or so. You'll need this clearance.

Now undo all the screws that hold the dash pad to the door pillar, the top dash, and the screws that attach to the center gauge cluster. This, and pushing the column down will probably allow you to move the dash pad forward a little.

Next you have to disconnect the speedometer cable. You'll probably have to lay on your back on the floor and reach up through the maze of wire. The speedo is attached to the cable with a clip. Undo the clip to remove the cable. Do the same with the tach (or do you have an electric tach in 73?). Next, the back of the speedo and tach need to have all the light bulb sockets pulled out. Each bulb has it's own pair of wires going into the main harness.

(If you have AC, you may have to remove some other stuff. I don't have AC)

Now you should be able to pull the dash pad forward a couple of inches. Now disconnect the headlight switch. Through the couple of inch opening, feel along the body of the switch. You should find a little button. Push the button, this should allow you to pull the headlight switch **** out. This frees the headlight switch. Notice the two vacuum hoses on the switch. Mark one "Front". You don't want to put these hoses back in the wrong position.

Now the dash pad should be almost free. Resist the urge to brut force pull it out. The plastic substrate is very brittle and will crack easily.
The top of the speedo and tach "can" bodies will be probably what is keeping the dash from coming out easy. The speedo and tach conical shapped bezels are held on by two small screws on top, and one on the bottom. Undo these screws to free the speedo/bezel and tach/bezel assemblies. The top two screws can be gotten from the top. The third bottom screw means you have to lay on your back again.

The dash should pull out easily now.
...........................

After removing the dash, you can look into the compartment and see 12 or more little light bulbs all hanging from their short wire pairs. It's difficult to replace all these light bulb sockets when the dash is back in. What I (and others have done) is cut the wires, add extra lengths of wires and then terminate them in connector/s. Similarly the wire stubs now sticking out of the main harness can be also terminated in a connector/s half. This way you put the many light bulbs back in the tach and speedo bodies when the dash pad is completely out of the car, and now a new cable harness and connector half hanging down from the back of the dash pad. Now after re-installing the dash pad, you can mate the two connector halves, one from the dash pad and the other connector half coming from the main harness, and shove the extra wire run back up under the dash.

 

it's not that difficult. it is mainly just time consuming. be prepared to spend the better half of a day if you have never done it befor.

the only thing i would add to the above is don't cut your wires.

if you take off the top dash pad, your drivers side dash will come out much easier and you will have enough room to disconnect and reconnect the cables and wires with out modification.

you have to remove all of the trim from around the window pillars to get the top dash pad out, but it makes the job easier.

i have had the dash off of my 73 several times. it gets easier each time.

i would rather take the entire dash out and back in twice, blind folded, with one hand tied behind my back than to ever have to take off that god awful, mother trucking fan shroud ever again. that is by far the most distasteful job i have encountered to date on my 73. (mainly because i refuse to cut mine in half like others have done.)

 

It is such a PITA job to remove the instrument cluster from these cars, that the very first thing I would do is verify that the new speedometer works properly. You can do this with a small square drive (or piece of an old speedometer or tach cable) and a cordless drill. The worse thing is to get it all back together and find out it doesn't work. I did this job 3 or 4 times before I gave up and bought a new speedometer movement.

On the '73 there is no real need to remove the dash pad to pull the cluster. The job may be easier with the pad out of the way, but these things are so old and brittle, that you are sure to break some of the retainers removing it or putting it back in. Also when you do get the cluster out and disassemble it, be very careful and gentle because again the plastic is old and brittle and things break easily. Be just as careful when reassembling it for the same reason.

Once you get the cluster out, you will notice that the light socket holes are marked on the back of the cluster. The bundle of lights are color coded and it is very clear which socket goes where. There are only a few that go into specific holes (I insert them first), the rest are all gray and are the backlights to the cluster. While these can go into any of the remaining holes, you will find that because of the wire lengths they will almost direct you to the hole they go into.

The tripometer cable can be a bit tricky. Most folks will insert it into the speedometer head and connect it to the bracket at the bottom of the dash, then seat the cluster into the opening. This will almost always put a kink in the cable and make it very difficult to reset the tripometer. The cable actually needs to be routed over a small brace behind the dash with the cluster seated and only then attached to the lower bracket. I attach it to the speedometer head first, slide the cluster into place and then route the cable around the brace and down to the bracket. It can be attached to the speedometer head after seating the cluster, but it is tedious and frustrating. The important thing is to not allow it to be kinked. I have even seen a speedometer head damaged by shoving the cluster in and kinking the cable.

Take a good look up behind the cluster with a light after lowering the column but before you remove anything from the cluster and most of what I have said will be much clearer. It's also a good idea to mark things with masking tape where they came off of, especially vacuum hoses, to make it easier to put back together. Reverse the hoses on the headlight switch... and you'll be removing the cluster again to get the headlights to work properly.

Good luck and remember it's all been done before... GUSTO

 

Thanks Gusto and 68/70Vette
Any info on this task is well appreciated.

 

Ups.... no I didn´t know that, thanks