I want to take the speedo and tach out of my 73 coupe,I would like to know how to proceed to remove the dash portion that they are in. :smash:

 

hauk,

This past winter I had my entire 69 dash out. So... I'll pass along what I learned. This applies only to the section housing the speedo and tach. I had pulled the steering colume... I had to.... it will make things much easier for you. There are two bolts under the dash - two on the firewall, the coupling, and the electrical connections... comes right out :thumbs:

Next remove all the screws on the section housing the speedo and tach... then remove the vacume switches under the steering colum - just tuck them aside. If your car has a trip odometer - you may have to remove the nut used to secure the lower cable if it is routed arround the brace behind it. I started with the left side. Pull the dash pannel out far eonugh to remove the electrical conntor to the light switch. :thumbs:

By now it should be loose with only the cables and wires holding it in place. Reach up behind and disconnect the speedo and tach cables. The tach is usually the short one thats tought to get at. Each guage has six dash light you have to remove. They are color coded, so putting them back will be easy. There may be another vaccum line and a wire connector that are connected to a switch on the lower RH side of the pad. I believe it for the WW door. disconnect them as well. You may have to reach behind and bend open the clips used to hold the harness in place- these two clips (similar to the one under the hood only smaller) are secures to the back side of the guages.

By now it should be in your lap! :flag

I think thats its...

Oh I forgat about the vent duct - remove that too... first!

John

 

Pretty thorough above. IMHO, with a bit more work you could remove your upper dash (have to remove the right lower dash as well to accomplish this). It may be easier with access from above during the re-installation as all those vacuum lines have to be hooked up and you can visually inspect that everything is sitting correctly back there.
--Jack

 

Un bolt the steering column and let it drop down to give the room needed to pull the dash pad out. If you don't you could break it.

 

When you drop the column, don't just remove the two vertical bolts that hold the column up into the dash. The column is also secured by two bolts down at the floorpan. You want to remove those two fasteners as well. Otherwise the column will be cantilevered by the flexible coupling connection and those two lower bolts. It is very hard on the column lower bearing and on the lower column jacket to have it cantilevered.

As a matter of fact, if you are this far along with the column, you might as well disconnect the flexible coupling, the ignition switch and the turnsignal switch wiring and pull the whole column out of the car. This will give you a lot more access to the instrument cluster.

For a lot greater detail on dropping and removing the steering column, I might suggest the following: Go to http://www.corvettefaq.com and look under Steering. Download the following paper(s):

Tilt & Telescoping Column 69-82 Disassembly & Repair Paper #2
and
Tilt & Telescoping Column Installation Pic

or

Std Column 69-82 Disassembly & Repair Paper #2
and
Std Column Installation Pic

Good luck