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| Joined: | 09-10-2012 |
| Location: | Little Chute, Wisconsin USA |
| Posts: | 435 |
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(sorry, but the last thing I ever want to do on an JH is make even more work for myself)
Now that I have that rant out of the way... you do NOT need to remove the instrument panel to change out the tach. It's actually really easy to do right through the face. All you have to do is this:
Here's a generic picture of a Smiths tach viewed from the back (not the right one, but the mounting is the same), hopefully to make my explanation a little clearer:
(1) remove the steering wheel (not technically necessary, but it makes assuming the Lotus position a whole lot easier)
(2) reach up behind the dash to the back of the tach. It's held in place by two knurled nuts (seen in photo at approximately the 3:00 and 9:00 position) that pull it tight against the face of the dash. Hopefully you can loosen those by hand... not a lot of room for your fingers back there but I didn't have any trouble with it. Remove the nuts.
(3) Those nuts are threaded onto two studs that extend from the back of the tach. They hold "captive" a couple of "fingers" that have a round portion that slides over the studs, and the other end presses against the back of the instrument panel. You can kind of see them behind the nuts in the photo. At this point you don't technically have to remove them (they will just fall off when you remove the tach), but you might want to so you know where they are instead of having them fall into some nether region back there.
(4) Slowly, from the back, push the tach out of the instrument panel, toward the steering wheel. It should just slide out, and if you haven't removed the retaining fingers they will fall off and end up somewhere behind the dash, probably painful to get at.
(5) Remove the three wires and the bulb from the back, and it's out.
You can do the wiring I spoke of (plugging the two wires together) right through the hole in the instrument panel. While you're in there, fish a new wire through the hole as well for the new connection you'll need. No need to be pulling that whole thing out.
Last edited on 12-02-2014 12:50 am by answerman