ghoastrider1

Ok, I have pulled the panel, have it inside all ready to work on. Going to order parts from bantee folks. Now, I was very careful taking out the screws for the cover. Same when I unscrewed the main unit BUT, those 4 little bitty screws went AWOL on me and with one, yes, just one, rolling somewhere in the steering shaft,wheel assy. Dang, now gonna have to pull the steering wheel off. Any hints as to working on the panel? Anyone know what sized those little bitty rat fink, born in hell, I hate you, screws are?

JrRifleCoach

Try a magnet

mcguirjf

Batee has a series of YouTube videos that were extremely helpful in the entire process when I rebuilt mine. Here is a link to one of them.

Sorry to hear about the lost screw. I believe the four screws that hold the panel in the dash are all the same size. For install use ski wax to hold the fastener when reinstalling.

I used a 1/4 drive socket on an extension to remove my cluster. Didn't lose a bolt, but the socket fell down the center console. I was extremely lucky fishing with a magnetic wand and recovered the socket. In the future I'm taping the socket to the extension.

ghoastrider1

already did the magner on a wand thing, no luck. Gonna get a stronger one tomorrow.

chevyman_ky

can you get a vacuum hose to it to try to suck it out

corvetteronw

What fun! It always made me feel better after one of those incidents to take a big old wrench and whip it out the open garage door as far as it would go! I checked to see that none of the neighbors in my cul de sac were watching though.

gerardvg

Hi

I have used the bate repair kits (they are on ebay for the common problems)

The board connector pin set was bad on my 85, a common problem.
It was pretty much the only problem I had over the last 20 years with my dash part from a blown lamp.

I also replaced the light sensor and new cool lamps at the same time, she looks great now and was an easy job.

If you know how to use a soldering iron, you can do it yourself its quite easy with the online videos batee has for the repairs.
Otherwise pay batee to repair your dash.

starrman62

This may help you feel a bit better...I was doing a valve job on a car once and dropped one of the keeper sides, it fell right into an oil port that led to the bottom end of the engine...If I remember correctly it was a Saab and the oil pan gasket would take a week to get (this was back in the day), so I used a small magnet and fishing line...took me about 4 hours, but I finally pulled it out!

Good luck with your project.

Scott Lumbert

I just did mine on my 85. Not terrible. I put led lights in and new screen covers.