hi guys, a friend recently had his temp gauge in his 70 chevelle go bad. can the gauge be replaced by removing the dash pad? never had to get behind that year dash before. thanks for any tips.

hi guys, a friend recently had his temp gauge in his 70 chevelle go bad. can the gauge be replaced by removing the dash pad? never had to get behind that year dash before. thanks for any tips.

I once changed a non SS dash over to guages W/O removing the dash. It is possible but it was NOT fun. If you can stand all the bending and twisting and you have good skills at working upside down and backwards then have at it.

You may think you can get at it from the top but if my memory is correct some of those G'damn nuts / bolts are not positioned in such a way that you can not get at them from "over the top". You may have to go in from the under side.

I can't remember where the temp guage is located. Suffice to say that whatever is on the extreme left side of the dash above the headlight switch is a real PIA to work on. You might end up removing some of the dash ventiltion duct work and the headlight switch.

Removing some things like the radio will certainly help if you are working on the pair of small guages near the center of the dash. If you are changing out one of the small guages on the center of the dash you have to remove BOTH guages together to access eather one for R&R! They are mounted as a pair in a sheet metal "holder". You gotta remove the holder then replace one or both guages then reinstall the two guages as a set.

Also consider pulling out the seats. Sounds dumb but your back will thank you. Last but not least consider dropping the steering column down from the dash and / or removing the wheel. Anything that is in your way that could be removed is gonna be something you will WISH you had removed once this process gets started.

Be VERY careful with all the screws that go into the plastic dash. If you strip one or two the instrument pack will never stay put and it will look like hell. Make sure you have 1/4 drive deep well sockets and flexible extensions. Nut driver "handles" that will attach to the flex extensions are highly recommended.

This is not impossible w/o removing the dash but it gets to the point where it will seem that it might have been better to pull the dash.

Pull the dash out and save yourself troubles.Theres some room if you take the dash pad off but its tight and the plastic is old and will break easy.
Besides if you remove the dash you can take the cluster apart clean it,you can even restore the lens so its clear and clean.Do it this way and it takes time but when you get it back in you'll see it was worth it.