How does the guage/insterment panel come off?
The speedo cable is whats in question. 1976 f-150

 

There's a plastic lever you need to press to unlock it while you pull it off, similar to this:

 

I took mine out recently. The pic above is good... that's the hard part. A little shot of WD40 helps. Also a factory service manual helped a lot... eBay or probably available on disc. A big help for me on this and other things.

 

Dash bezel removal is first: Disconnect battery then reaching up under the dash and push on the remove the headlight **** and shaft release button on the top of the switch.

Then remove the 5 screws first. Far left between the headlight/wiper *****, there are 2 screws, 1 between the *****, and 1 above it, going in straight up. Moving right there are 2 more screws. 1 in the middle, 1 far right, both pointing straight up. Section heater control there is 1 screw pointing straight up.

Heater controls are in behind the dash plastic, they stay where they are, but you will slide/squeeze the levers out of way to prevent them from hooking on the dash bezel.
To remove the wiper **** it has a release clip on its shaft that you can put pressure on with small flat tip screwdriver in the tiny slot, press and release and slide the **** off.

Radio may be behind or in front the dash bezel, depending on how previous owner (P.O.) installed it. If its factory or shaft style, pull the ***** off the radio and you will see shallow nuts on the shafts. Clean the shaft threads with elec cleaner and small brush, because the shafts will strip VERY easily, use a deep set socket on them. Once the nuts are removed, there should be a plastic or metal radio plate to remove. Behind that are 2 more screws holding dash bezel to a metal bracket. But not always…

Okay, under the 3 sections that you see the gauges in, under the middle one there is a plastic tab from the dash bezel that is tucked behind the metal part of the dash. You can see the metal cutout area for it, when the headlight ****/shaft is pulled out or removed all together you can pull up on the plastic dash bezel to get the plastic tab out of the slot.

If you could not find the button on the headlight switch in the 1st place. Disconnect the battery and pull out the HEADLIGHT ****/shaft. With all screws out of dash and radio loose, you should be able to tilt it forward and see the headlight switch directly behind where the headlight **** is. So with the shaft out then you tilt the plastic dash bezel forward to get your hand above the switch and feel for a metal button to press and hold to release the headlight shaft from the headlight switch. **** and shaft will slide out as one piece with the button held down.

Cluster assembly is mounted with 4 screws, once they are out, VERY CAREFULLY pull fwd on the assembly just a little. You need it fwd just enough to get a hand on the speedo cable white plastic connector. If you can not get it fwd enough, push yourself some slack in the cable from the eng compartment.

The using your hand or a small pair of pliers CAREFULLY squeeze the white clip till the cable comes out of the cluster (the white clip will come with it). DO NOT PRY on the clip it, will break and then you have another issue.

Squeeze the sides of the main electrical connector and it should release.

Have you been here yet? https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...then-some.html

 

Yea just the few screws on bezel.
Then the few around the cluster box.
That special clip on the speedo.
And the one main plug for elec. Y'all correct me if wrong but just squeeze on the ends and pull out.

And please do your self a favor and unhook the battery. Across the back of the cluster box is an exposed printed circuit.. If done correctly, while unhooking the speedo(or hooking up,I don't remember what I did) you can strike it across the back and ground it out and fry the board. Think a new one in LMC was $200. Lucky I found another cluster in the jy

 

WoW those were some long winded answers. thank you guys.

 

White plastic collar - put pressure on square part like is shown in picture, put pressure on it til it touches the metal, hold it there and pull straight out of cluster, the metal will slide out of the cluster, speedo cable end is now free of cluster