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I seem to get just a few minutes every day, but I'll just keep chipping away. Today I got the trim above the glove box out.
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The end cap comes off with just this one screw.
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With the end cap removed, you can remove the screws holding the vent, and the screw holding the end of the trim piece. The plastic on the end of my trim was broken and long gone, so the screw wasn't doing much.
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Also pick this little plastic cover out, and remove the two screws its hiding.
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At this point, the vent just pulls out. Be sure to get its little level back into place on reassembly....
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You need to pull the connectors off the flasher switch (or pull the switch out of the trim), cigarette lighter, and clock. Note also (1) the rubber tube that runs to the back of the little round grill (to sample cabin temps); and (2) the trim light bulb -- both of which need to get nestled back into place when the trim goes back on.
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In addition to the broken mounting tab on the end, the flasher switch retaining tabs snapped off despite trying to avoid exactly that. Cheap West German plastic breaks after a mere 35 years.. Pffff...
Very little time for the dash today, but was determined to do "something' -- so got the A pillars out.....
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These little rubber plugs come out with your fingernail to reveal the 3 screws holding the A-pillar in place (same on both sides).
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The screw on top points straight up, and is deep in the well, so can be hard to find with the screwdriver.
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The well for that screw is so deep, I used it to mount my speaker phone microphone, courtesy of a 3D-printed mount that plugs into that screw well. It's been there so long, I forgot I did that.
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With the 3 screws removed, you just need to pull the weather stripping down to free the pillar trim. You might need to pull fairly hard if it's never been off.
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Tonight I did the one task I dread most -- pulling the glove box. But Tom, pulling the glove box is easy, it's just a couple of screws, etc. Yeah, well, not mine....
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This starts to give you the idea....
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I'll spare you the details of all the connections I needed to keep track of, but somehow I've managed to stuff all of this into the glove box over the years, which attached to the bottom of the glove box in a big cut-out section of the glovebox floor. Plenty of clean up to do here, now that it's out..... If I ever move to a stand-alone, this will be why!
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With all that plumbing out of the way, the box itself slides out easy peasy....
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Closer still... The big event may come this weekend with any luck.
Darwin wrote: Fri Dec 10, 2021 7:51 pm
I vote for standalone! I'll help you make the harness!
It's on my bucket list, though maybe not this particular car.... In the meantime, Mr. Tortoise kept crawling along this afternoon.....
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Next up was this bracket that bolts to the tunnel and holds the center console. For some reason, all the online guides I found (e.g., Clarks, etc.) said there were a left and right bracket, but on my car (and in PET) it's clearly one bracket. To remove it, you need to remove the 2 upper 'screws' and the 2 lower M6 bolts. The screws are M5 x .8 bolts with a Philips head (so can be tight), and the bolts were the first thing in the whole process that required anything other than a screwdriver to remove!
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To get the bracket out, you need to remove these upper screws and lower bolts on each side.
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Here's the bracket out of the car.
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Next off was the plastic trim around the ignition switch. Start by peeling out the rubber surround around the ignition key. Then to get the plastic panel out, you need to remove three screws, as shown in this picture. You also need to free up the two switches in the panel. You can either pull the switches out of the panel by depressing their retainer tangs, and by doing so break the plastic retaining piece on the back of the panel; or you can leave the switches in the panel and remove the electrical connectors from the switches, and by doing so break the plastic retaining piece on the back of the panel that way instead. Your choice.
Next up is the trim piece around the headlight switch. The headlight knob pulls straight off, leaving a 24mm nut holding the switch to the trim. Remove that nut. Then pick off the little black plastic cover panel and remove the two screws under it.
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You also need to remove the 3 screws that were in these holes (hard to see in car). The bottom one should be out already from taking the ignition key trim off.
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The last screw for this trim piece is under the end cap. Remove the screw holding the end cap, remove the end cap, and then remove the screw holding the end of the trim piece.
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Then remove the connectors from the switches (or take switches out of the panel). Miraculously, I managed to get these part without breaking anything. There's a first for everything.
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Finally, get the turn signal stalk off by loosening this bolt with an 8mm socket and just pulling the whole unit straight off the steering column.
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And disconnect the three connectors going to the stalk unit.
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And, now, if you believe the internet, the dash is 4 screws away from coming out......
