My dashboard lights on the left hand side have gone out. Has anyone done this replacement? My ford parts guy was kind enough to give me several bulbs, but I do not know whether I have to enter from the front, or from under and in back of the dash.

TIA,

dpm

 

Ah yes, I just did this, same model and year. Here are several tips.

1. The speedo cable is under the truck and attached by clips, yank it loose and leave lots of play in the cable.

2. When pulling the main plastic piece off, the one with the indicator squares, pull gently around the squares as it sticks with the gasket material they used. Mine came off in a couple pieces, but was good enough to use again.

3. Gently pull the cluster out, clear bezel and all, until you can reach behind and unclip the speedo cable. Then gently unkink the wire harnesses (2) as you pull the cluster out.

4. Look for screws as you go (torx heads, I think) and note that several pieces have snaps and screws.

5. Go slow and don't break anything.

Regards, Robert.

 

Hey give you a pretty good explanation in the Haynes Manual as well! Good luck!

 

One more thing. To get the ***** off, take a heavy paperclip and bend the end into a small question mark. Stick the question mark into the slot in the **** and pull back towards the slot. If you do it just right, the **** comes right off.

Regards, Robert.

 

Great post steps are pretty much correct I've run this drill on wife's Escort and a couple of rice burners. My first time I forgot to make slack in the speedo cable....bunch of yanking and cussing cost me a speedo cable, at least I didn't crack the cluster..LOL anyway the young folks at a nameless national auto parts store claimed they didn't have these bulbs, but had a rack of Sylvania bulbs??? Anybody got a bulb number my right side is out over the gas gauge?

 

Sorry for two separate posts (I'm a newbee) I found the Sylvania website which has a parts matcher see link

Lamp Replacement Guide View All Bulbs

first it told me multiple part numbers so take bulb to store, but this chart is all bulbs in the vehicle...PN194 is turn signal indicator and one possible so I'll get 4 of those and 2 of PN 161 and PN89. They're cheap and returnable with a receipt.

 

I just replaced mine with green leds, takes 5 bulbs, you can put in #194s or some #168s, the 168s are slightly higher amp draw, should be a little brighter. I went with leds because I wanted them ALOT brighter. all the others, should be 194s or 168s. the difference in 161 vs 168 vs 194 is very very little, all work in place of the other.

 

Thanks for the part numbers. Installed the 168's there are actually 8 behind the dash but I only bought 6 so I have 6 new 168 and the dash looks good and bright. Now onto the license plate lights