I recently purchased a 69 Chevelle that has some burnt out instrument pannel lights. How do I replace them? Is it hard to take out the instrument pannel?:confused

Yes, you can remove your cluster and dash bezel but there's a good chance you will break the bezel unless you're very very careful.

I'd try the following first:
1) remove the plastic cover below the steering column (4 screws)
2) If your car is an automatic, there is a clip over the lower edge of the shift bowl. The clip connects to a piece of thread that drives the PRNDL. Remove the retaining screw and clip.
3) Drop the upper end of the steering column by removing the two retaining nuts. Don't horse the column around. You can mess things up.
4) Remove the ash tray and ash tray support.
5) While things are still very tight, you should now be able to get to the bulbs.

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Fred Aldrich
The Chevelle Engineer
Web Site: www.CoreComm.net/~faldrich (http://www.CoreComm.net/~faldrich)

[This message has been edited by Fred Aldrich (edited 02-06-2000).]

And also so you know, the bulb sockets are just plugged into the instrument panel. They snap in and out rather easily, so once you get your hand up there you can easily pull them out. Once out, the wire generally has enough play to let you bring the socket down past the dashboard.

If your going to do them, do them all, including your signal lights, etc. Last time I changed mine, I didn't do the signal lights and two days after putting things back together one of em went out.

Wes

Is there any way to get the lights brighter?. Better bulbs?. Different way of lighting the gauges?.

Maybe i did it the hard way but i laid on my back and had my feet over the seat back. I then got out the flash light and reached up and one by one replaced the lights, they pop out pretty easy. I did not unscrew anything.
Careful getting back up the blood will rush from your head LOL.
bill my .02

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Southern Jersey

As I recall, I checked into that and wasn't able to find a brighter substitute. Brighter means hotter so you run the risk of melting the plastic if you go too far.

Wes' comments are right on. I'd add that the sockets are plastic with a metal ring with fingers that snap into the back of the cluster. If you remove a bulb and the socket doesn't have the metal ring, it's still in the back of the cluster. Use your fingernail to remove it and reinstall it in the face of the connector.

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Fred Aldrich
The Chevelle Engineer
Web Site: www.CoreComm.net/~faldrich (http://www.CoreComm.net/~faldrich)

Thanks Guys, thats kinda what I thought I would have to do (stand on my head instead of risking breaking something) back in 69 that would have been no problem, but now 31 years and 30 some pounds later might make it a little bit more difficult, but I still think I can handle it. I just thought if the dash came out rather easy I would have the clock quartzed while I was at it.

To get your dash lights brighter clean them. I took the cluster out of my 64 and cleaned everything. The bulbs were covered with dust. The housing and bezel were covered with a thin layer too. After it went back together it was like they were halogens. I keep the dimmer at 1/2 throttle now and turn it to full only when I'm in brightly lit areas. Of course the 64/65 dash is a piece of cake to disassemble. It all comes out the front with all the screws in plain view.