Is there a way to remove the speedo needle safely to replace the light bulbs? I've removed the two small screws allowing the face plate to move but the needle is preventing access to the bulbs

 

The bulbs come out from the back of the housing. Don't remove the needle, the screws or the faceplate. You just have to squeeze your hand behnd the speedo, find the bulbs and twist the bulbs out. Good luck and Happy New Year and welcome to the club.

 

 

Oh.. I suppose you could take the needle off and remove the face to replace the bulbs... and I've got instructions and a video on how to remove the needle... . but that would be the hard way.... Remove the housing, then remove the bulbs.. it's way easier and here is a set of instructions to help you. http://repairs.willcoxcorvette.com/w...structions.pdf

 

 

After thinking about this in the morning, I realized that it's impossible to remove the needle with the speedo in the dash. To remove the needle you must hold the speed cup and with the speedo installed you'll damage something trying to get the needle off, just follow the instructions I posted above and yank the housing... it'll save you some headaches for sure.

Willcox

 

 

The bulbs are held in place by a twist socket and they come out from the back side with ease.


If you look at this picture you'll see them on the right hand side. The only way to change the bulb is to remove this housing. The sockets in the picture are blue, the new ones are now black as shown above.

 

Just so the "removing the steering wheel, dropping the column" doesn't scare you, I have a 1980 tilt column and if I loosen the column bolts (under dash) to their max without taking them out and tilt the steering wheel all the way down, I can remove the tach/odometer cluster without removing the steering wheel. Slide the cluster towards you, reach back and unplug tach cable (or do under the dash), unplug 12 pin main connector and slide out towards the drivers side. Check condition of circuit and replace as many bulbs as desired. Reverse process when re-installing.

Richard

 

Yes - lake rider summed it up well - except that I needed to reach up from the floor to disconnect the speedo (there is no tach cable - all electronic), but it pops right out when you loosen/drop the steering. column the extra inch or so.
If I were you I'd install all new "warm" (important) white LED bulbs while you are in there - the best thing I did that year for a modern degree of visibility that.you will not regret. The rotary dimmer still works 50-60% which I find is more than adequate.
Btw, pull out your speedo cable from the housing and give it a long-overdue lubrication (YouTube it, extremely easy and necessary(.

Dave

 

 

A note of caution - after replacing them with all new original glass bulbs (naively thinking the OE bulbs had faded over time), I decided to move to the upgraded LED bulbs. I first replaced mine with the standard "cool" white lights - just excited to have brighter instrument lights. But, they just didn't look natural for our era of vehicle. Then, I replaced them with the same flat bulbs but with "warm" light color but they did not have enough lumens. So, I upgraded to the below type. They fit perfectly in the bulb receptables and pack enough lumens to appear as modern lighting. You can "dim" them to a point, but you really won't want to - It seems that they are just the right amount of light for comfortable nighttime driving, and the color ("3000k LED light color) is probably identical to your original lights, but bright enough to actually read the gauges. I first installed them in the center console instrumentation lighting - you can see for yourself how they compare with the barely discernable OE bulbs in the speedo/tach cluster in the attached photo. You might be tempted to think they are a little too bright - they are not. The OE bulbs are that dim on C3's, and not just on our `82's.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/10x-T10-505...qCm7:rk:1:pf:0

Tip: make sure that, after you are ready to reinstall your instrument cluster, inspect each light bulb for illumination. You'll have a 50/50 chance that your LED bulb is on because they are polarity-sensitive. Just turn around the unlit bulb and plug it back in and it will work. We have all experienced this in our LED conversions but it is usually overlooked in the forum explanations. Also, there is really no reason to change out the instrument bulbs that function as turn signals or warning lights - the LED bulbs do not offer a noticeable improvement. Btw, when you migrate to upgrading the center console bulbs, here are a couple of additional tips: 1.) you can access the shifter bulb via the passenger side carpeted access panel - there is no reason to remove the shifter console, itself. 2.) When you remove the center console to change out the bulbs, consider enlarging the plastic `down-fire' hole with a drill bit (try 30% larger), while you already have it apart, that illuminates the climate controls. You can see the improvement in the attached photo. Again, it might appear too bright - its not (and iPhone camera is sensitive). Even when you replace the bulb with the upgraded warm LED bulbs the original hole is so tiny that it didn't really help much since the OE aperture is too small.

Hope this helps. My only request (insist) is that you do the same for someone else on our awesome C3 forum, including pics whenever possible.

Dave V.

 

lakeside49,

Thanks for correcting me, yes I meant to say speedo but was thinking of the tach display.

Richard