Tuesday, Apr 20, 2004 at 13:40
No probs. Two screws in the plastic surround above the speedo, one in the far left corner next to the radio, then just prise the facia panel out of the dash, would help if you have finger nails (leave no marks where a screw driver would if it was use as a pry).
Once the facia is off there are 4 screws that hold the instrument cluster in place. Make sure you have clean hands and there is no dust in the air as the perspex speedo cover will more than likely pop off at this stage, if it does leave it off its easier to work without it popping off constantly.
You will now be able to move the cluster forward an inch or two before the speedo cable takes up. With your delicate lady like hand going in where the centre air vents were you can reach the speedo cable. The cable has a clip that you will feel, while pushing in the clip gently pull back on the cable and it should come off. You can now pull the cluster out so you can get at the back of it, leave the wiring loom in place.
After doing what you suggested with the tbelt light screws it is a reversal of the above. The only pain was getting the speedo cable back on, a bit of a fiddle to line it up, but then it just "snaps" back into place.
Being careful not to touch the cluster if the perspex cover is off just pop everything back into place. Took me about an hour, next time should be about half that I hope. For a simple operation I didn't want to pay the mechanic at $75 per hour to discover how to do something that he should know. Apparently earlier Hiluxs just needed a spike to poke in a recess behind a plug in the front of the speedo, that he knew.
Cheers
Buggerlux
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