Pulling a dash

[Tleg93]

Has anyone ever pulled and installed a dash? I'm thinking of getting into this and was curious what kind of time others have had doing it.

[Splinter]

I havent pulled the whole dash, but Ive pulled all the front sections

It was pretty straight forward.

[Brat4by4]

http://bbs.legacycentral.org/viewtopic. ... eater+core

[Tleg93]

Brat, that link didn't cover dash removal at all. My heater core is fine. What I'm trying to do is pull the dash in my 93 and swap it over to my 91. It's not pressing but I'm curious how hard a time people have had with it. I've had a friend tell me it was a bitch and to not even go there so I wanted to get the expert and experienced opinions.

[Brat4by4]

Are you talking about the instrument cluster or the entire dashboard? Because if it is the dashboard, then that is what you take out to get to the heater core... thus the link. Either way I have done both, so specify what you are trying to do.

Taking out the dash consists of what I outlined in the link. Not too hard if you have the time and are careful. Snapping pics as you go to put everything back together correctly. I'd estimate 20 electrical connections (all different), 3 grounds, 6 panels, and 15 bolts to take everything out.

[Tleg93]

Cool man, that's the kind of info I was looking for. You see, my '91 has the gray cloth/pleather interior and my '93 has the black cloth. Since my '91 is black I'm gauging whether or not it's worth it to swap out the interior pieces including rugs, seats and dash...the entire piece. I would like to use as much of my other car as possible before parting it out and also to have a totally black car.

[Brat4by4]

Take out all the radio stuff and unscrew all grounds. Remove the glovebox and ac box behind it. Remove the steering wheel, trim, dash instrument cluster, trim pieces, etc. Take out something like 7 bolts and the whole dash is loose. Unplug all the electrical connectors and such and the whole dash is out of the car +/-.

From the link I quoted. You would just leave the ac box alone.

[IronMonkeyL255]

Awesome.

I was wondering how to do this since I was considering a dash swap in the not-so-near future.

I've had all the black trim off the front and the glovebox out, but never more than that (unless you count all the seats, the center console, and the carpet.....).

[mvons]

My husband (aircraft mechanic) took off the dash to replace the heater core. He glanced at the instructions assuming it should be assemble in a commen sense manner. He doesn't do that on his job by the way.

I sent my son in the house so he wouldn't hear all the swearing.

There are a ton of clips. My husband ended up yanking it out. Undoing all the wires as he went.

He didn't label anything and I gulped when I saw the tray of screws.

He did need my help to lift the dash in and out. Do follow the instructions on removing the steering wheel, marking the spot.

He had to epoxy a crack near the radio.

When re-assembled, we LACKED 4 screws which he found duplicates in his tool box.

I read the forum to find that we shouldn't have connected the green and black single wire trouble shooters. It was easier reassembling.

No way would he have done it for aesthetics. My hands are small like the manufacturer and I had to connect some of the wires.

[ferrari494]

I've had to replace my heater core twice(never buy a used heater core...it might break on you 6 months after you put it in)...the first time was a little difficult getting the wiring right...but my dad and I managed the second time to get it out in under an hour and a little longer to put it all back in. Just label all the wiring or you will be confused for awhile, but it was really a pretty easy task for us.

[Brat4by4]

I went used and was scared of it being bad too so I had the one I got tested. I found one of those old-school radiator guys that had the full sized dip tanks and the sweet stuff to actually work on radiators. He checked it out at something like 20 psi and he said it was good to go. I had the old one tested, also. He told me the seams had let go or something and that was rare for an aluminum radiator to go bad in that way.

I take my time and snap digital pictures as I go when tackling something large like that. I even take random pictures at random angles -just in case- and that saved my butt a couple of times when putting the dash back together. Little baggies for the screws that come from a certain area (ex: radio, dash bolts). And I clean up stuff as I take it apart. Takes me a loong time, but relatively stress free and I only ended up with about 3 screws missing, lol.

[Tleg93]

I have the same pile of screws as someone up above mentioned. Fortunately, I have another Tleg to use as a reference.

[aspect]

A good tip is to use jiffy marker and label the electrical connectors before you unhook them as A1, A2, B1, etc. Using a couple different magnetic screw trays for different areas of the dash doesn't hurt either.