How to remove the AMP/Fuel gauge from dashboard?

[guy_geo]

My light comes in/comes out at night only on that gauge..

If I tap on the top of the dashboard, it commes to life... and suddenly, black-out again..

Do I need to remove the whole dash to get access to it??

Help please...

[sblake01]

You can reach the bulb socket by removing the glove box. Or at least I can on my 78.

[guy_geo]

Ok,,, I had a very hard tiime installing the glove box back, since it was taken out by the previous owner...

[MEZZZ]

Ok,,, I had a very hard tiime installing the glove box back, since it was taken out by the previous owner...

Other option is to remove the face plate above the heater controls. Disconnect the map light and fuel light. Then remove the airbox by unscrewing it and taking off the hoses attached to it from the left and right. Then you can unscrew the mount that hold in the gauge and drop it out from behind the dash. The gauge is plugged into the harness, unplug and remove.

You can run a hot lead to the light, green wire is hot, red/blue to ground and tap on it and see if it stays constant. Sounds like it might be loose at the plug connector.

[Montezuma]

The problem is shared by my car as well, I know the fix it just sucks doing it. The light bulb socket is not seated properly in the back of the guage. Its ground is the socket touching the back of the guage. If the bulb slips out back a bit then the light does not have its ground. The sockets wear out for some reason and do not stay in I have two like that. I had my heater bezel off and got to them fine but now it back on and it sucks reaching them throw the glove box(which is out right now). I was thinking of ways to keep them in place. I don't want to use an adhesive of course.

[MEZZZ]

WHen I had mine out, I ran a hot wire off the battery, positive to the green wire and negative to the red/blue wire and the bulb lit up. It was out of the gauge housing at the time. I duplicated this on all 5 gauges before reinstalling them. I replaced all bulbs and put on the Speedhut gauge faces. I tested them all twice before putting them back in and they all lit up by touching the pins in the connector.

Stephen is much better versed at this electrical stuff than am I. I can see your hesitation in glueing them in place.

[sblake01]

I'm looking at the back of a 78 speedo and a 78 volt/fuel gauge and all of the bulb sockets have their own hot and ground wire. They don't ground to the back of the gauge. If tapping on the dash makes them go on and off, either the bulb is bad or the contacts in the sockets are bad. If the plastic tabs are worn on the socket or the spring or contact in it is bad you can cut one from a spare gauge and splice it in to replace the bad one.

[EScanlon]

Guy's car is a 72, which can make a difference.

Stephen's advice regarding the glove box removal is what the FSM calls for on the 70-73 models. That's not necessarily the "prettiest" method as you're left wondering if you have to mangle it like a bit of origami to get it in and out. (And possibly it was an origami fan that wrote that bit of the FSM.)

The method described by MEZZ is halfway there, but you don't have to disconnect the air box and hoses.

Essentially, you DO remove the Heater Control Panel, but it only involves disconnecting the Heater Control Cables AT their connection point (3 @ the Heater and 1 @ the Fresh Air Flapper Valve), removing the radio hold down screws on the side of the radio, and the map light (you disconnect the Heater Fan Switch once you have it partly out), and then reaching UP.

An alternative method, if your hands are small enough and you're nimble enough with your fingers, is to get an 8mm wrench/socket and snake your hand up to the gauge from the passenger side footwell, and undo the one bolt holding the gauge in place ... or simply seating the light socket firmly in place then.

This has been described a couple of other times, so search under Heater Control Panel and removal.

HTH

E

[guy_geo]

Thanks a lot!!!

[jalexquijano]

Great!

[jalexquijano]

Ill try that method! Just hope i dont get anything lost on the way!