So, what should I do from here?

[thedudeabides86]

Hey everybody. Hope all is well out in truck land. So, here's the deal. I'm replacing the dash pad on the ol Green Beast and I've removed the gauge cluster. What would you all do before you put it back in place? The face of the panel could use a touch up and there's a lot of dust, dirt, and a few gauges that may not work properly. Is there a way to put some power to the gauge itself to see if they are operable? I see that the windshield wiper motor is back behind the cluster. Has anyone had any luck putting in a motor with delay capabilities? Other than that, I just thought I'd get some opinions since I have it out, I might want to do a few things before putting it all back and having to fix something else later. I love these trucks and how easy they are to work on. This is a tedious little project, swapping out this dash pad. I've posted a couple of pictures for viewing pleasure. Thanks for reading.

[HO455]

This is the only complete replacement I know of. There are several ways of doing it with a stock motor that are cheaper.

https://newportwipers.com/product/19...k/#wiper-motor

[thedudeabides86]

Originally Posted by HO455

This is the only complete replacement I know of. There are several ways of doing it with a stock motor that are cheaper.

https://newportwipers.com/product/19...k/#wiper-motor

HO455,

Thanks for the input. The wipers do work and I don't ever foresee driving this out in a hard rain much. I'll save my dough and put that money into the real problems I've got.

[demian5]

Replace the bezel (cheap enough) and if your defroster vents are broken, do those too. Good time to clean and wax the dash and lube the cables for the heater controls.

And you may need to slot the holes in the dash for the pad studs to get it to fit.

[HO455]

Heater cable lubing as previously recommended, inspect the heater switch, the heater resistor, the cigarette lighter wiring and the ignition switch wiring. They may have been over heated at some time in the past. I would also do a careful inspection of the bottom of cowl for rust and touch up the paint if it is failing.
P.S. if you have access to the dimmer switch its wiring is another problem area worth looking at.

[thedudeabides86]

Originally Posted by demian5

Replace the bezel (cheap enough) and if your defroster vents are broken, do those too. Good time to clean and wax the dash and lube the cables for the heater controls.

And you may need to slot the holes in the dash for the pad studs to get it to fit.

demian5,

Thanks for the input. I know the whole defroster/heat system hasn't worked for years, so that's something I've got to work on and those cables and the whole unit are accessible from under the dash at the unit. Do you know of the bezel being sold separately from the entire gauge cluster itself? I'm looking on LMC for the bezel (just the clear plastic covering, right?) and I'm not seeing a part number for it as a sole unit. Any suggestions as to what wax you'd use for the dash and what you'd use to lube the heater cables? The defroster vents seem to just sit in the holes on the top of the dash, so those can be replaced pretty easily.

[thedudeabides86]

Originally Posted by HO455

Heater cable lubing as previously recommended, inspect the heater switch, the heater resistor, the cigarette lighter wiring and the ignition switch wiring. They may have been over heated at some time in the past. I would also do a careful inspection of the bottom of cowl for rust and touch up the paint if it is failing.
P.S. if you have access to the dimmer switch its wiring is another problem area worth looking at.

I've got a cigarette lighter coming from LMC as well as a new glove box insert. There's a lot of dust and dirt in the dash as this truck went through the flood of 1997 when the Red River flooded Grand Forks, ND. The water never made it up into the dash, but the floor was submerged. It's amazing to me that the truck as a whole is as sound as it is since it sat in water for 2 weeks. I'm planning to redo the cab floor with the sound and heat padding at some time. I'll certainly check the underside of the dash for the rust and paint issues. The wiring to the ignition seems good, but the ignition itself seems to be a tad loose. There must be a nut in there to tighten it down, I'm sure.

[HO455]

This is what I used on mine. Any bike cable lube will work well

[slowcpe]

As far as gauges a new bezel is cheap and makes a huge difference.

My last two gauge sets I've take them apart, cleaned everything real well, installed LED bulbs, painted the needles orange, and used Meguires headlight restorer on the lens. Makes a huge difference for little investment.

[thedudeabides86]

Originally Posted by HO455

This is what I used on mine. Any bike cable lube will work well

Nice! I think I have a bottle of that. I'll get to that tonight after the kids are in bed. That gives me time for beer and truck work. Ha!

[thedudeabides86]

Originally Posted by slowcpe

As far as gauges a new bezel is cheap and makes a huge difference.

My last two gauge sets I've take them apart, cleaned everything real well, installed LED bulbs, painted the needles orange, and used Meguires headlight restorer on the lens. Makes a huge difference for little investment.

I asked this above, but is the bezel something I can buy that doesn't require me buying a whole new cluster? With installing LED's, did you have to do any modifications? I think if I followed correctly, if you change your head or tails lights over to LED's, you had to put in some sort of mechanism in line with the wiring to convert it. Can you pickup any kind of orange paint at a parts store or is it best to get paint designated for needles?

[slowcpe]

Originally Posted by thedudeabides86

I asked this above, but is the bezel something I can buy that doesn't require me buying a whole new cluster? With installing LED's, did you have to do any modifications? I think if I followed correctly, if you change your head or tails lights over to LED's, you had to put in some sort of mechanism in line with the wiring to convert it. Can you pickup any kind of orange paint at a parts store or is it best to get paint designated for needles?

Yes you can just buy the bezel, its usually $35-45 at most places. I found a thread on here a while ago on bulb model numbers and ordered everything from SuperBrightLEDs. It was pretty plug and play and made a huge difference in brightness. I used fluorescent orange spray paint and a paper towel with a hole in it.

[thedudeabides86]

[quote=slowcpe;8248326]Yes you can just buy the bezel, its usually $35-45 at most places. I found a thread on here a while ago on bulb model numbers and ordered everything from SuperBrightLEDs. It was pretty plug and play and made a huge difference in brightness. I used fluorescent orange spray paint and a paper towel with a hole in it.


I think I actually just found the bezel on LMC for $40. That's a sharp gauge cluster there. I'm all excited to get home and get to work now. Thanks for the pointers. I'll have to follow up with before and after photos when I'm done.

[HO455]

The drawback of LED bulbs is you can't dim them. Which if your not driving in rural areas probably isn't an issue. But for me it is nice to dim the dash when driving the highways of eastern Oregon after dark.

[thedudeabides86]

Ugh......

So, you'll all have to forgive me as I had an idiot moment. The "bezel" is the black and chrome part of the cluster. The "instrument lens" is just that. The clear plastic that sits over the gauges themselves.

Alright, I've done enough adulting for today. It seems as though my brain is mush.

[thedudeabides86]

Originally Posted by HO455

The drawback of LED bulbs is you can't dim them. Which if your not driving in rural areas probably isn't an issue. But for me it is nice to dim the dash when driving the highways of eastern Oregon after dark.

So, if you turned the headlight knob they wouldn't dim? Would they just stay at the same brightness?

[slowcpe]

Originally Posted by thedudeabides86

Ugh......

So, you'll all have to forgive me as I had an idiot moment. The "bezel" is the black and chrome part of the cluster. The "instrument lens" is just that. The clear plastic that sits over the gauges themselves.

Alright, I've done enough adulting for today. It seems as though my brain is mush.

Correct

Originally Posted by thedudeabides86

So, if you turned the headlight knob they wouldn't dim? Would they just stay at the same brightness?

I forgot about that. I haven't driven one of these at night but don't recall it being that bad. You can wire an LED dimmer but I haven't done that on one of these trucks. I did on my boat as it was mandatory get the boat on the trailer at night.

[HO455]

Originally Posted by thedudeabides86

So, if you turned the headlight knob they wouldn't dim? Would they just stay at the same brightness?

That is correct unless you convert the wiring to allow a special LED dimmer module to be hooked up.

[87Skier]

Along with the bezel, I would either refresh or replace the circuit board. You can add a pinch of salt to 1/2 oz. lemon juice, and use a q-tip to clean the copper. Check the bulb holders too. You can buy new ones or clean these and make sure the tabs are out far enough to get proper contact.

I added grounds to my gauges while I had it apart too. It might be overkill, but we all know how good the grounding is in older vehicles.

[demian5]

Originally Posted by thedudeabides86

demian5,

Thanks for the input. I know the whole defroster/heat system hasn't worked for years, so that's something I've got to work on and those cables and the whole unit are accessible from under the dash at the unit. Do you know of the bezel being sold separately from the entire gauge cluster itself? I'm looking on LMC for the bezel (just the clear plastic covering, right?) and I'm not seeing a part number for it as a sole unit. Any suggestions as to what wax you'd use for the dash and what you'd use to lube the heater cables? The defroster vents seem to just sit in the holes on the top of the dash, so those can be replaced pretty easily.

#1 or #2

http://www.lmctruck.com/features/cb/cbcc.htm

And if you aren't familiar with the defroster vents, the replacements fit like crap, hence the reason I mentioned if they need replacement...

['68OrangeSunshine]

If you pull the instrument panel apart, be very careful cleaning the plexiglas lens. Use canned air and light dusting sweeps with a feather duster. Any moisture will wash away the lettering.

[CC69Rat]

Youll be really surprised at what toothpaste and a little rubbing will do to the lens. The micro polishing of the toothpaste will bring that haze out of the original lens and you can save yourself that $35.

[clay68c10]

****Only polish the outside of the lens****

You will rapidly polish off the lettering on the inside.

If you do clean the inside, use a slightly (water) damp very soft cloth and the lightest touch known to man. This method has worked for me. Same with the gauge faces. It is possible to clean those surfaces, just be careful.

[thedudeabides86]

So, here's an update on the changing of the dash pad. Perhaps some of you have encountered this before.

I'm all set to install the dash pad from Brothers who get them from Dashes Direct.

https://www.brotherstrucks.com/67-72...tinfo/PAD7200/

What I didn't realize is that the original dash pad made in the good ol' 70's U.S of A, was course thread. Enter Chinese made dash pad with fine thread, most likely, metric studs. Does Brothers or Dashes Direct provide the fine thread nuts for said Chinese dash pad? Of course they do not. They'll sell you the cheap screws that go in the front of the dash pad, but not the fine thread nuts.When you're in your garage with a cold beer at 9:38pm and the hardware store down the street is closed, your work is stalled because you need said nuts. I tried calling Brothers a few minutes before this post and I was caller number 27. Seriously.

Any who, I'll get off my soap box now. I'll get pictures posted once I'm all done. Thanks again for all the input.

[thedudeabides86]

I also forgot to ask about a light bulb that's inline with wires that comes down the bottom of the steering column. It seats in the back of the gauge cluster, but I'm not sure what part of the gauges it would illuminate. Anyone have an idea? I'm guessing with the length of the cable it's attached to, it illuminates the temp gauge?