Light on my speedometer kah putt, Help !

[4Runnin Eddie]

Well the light on the speedometer is out. At first when I bought my 1987 T4R it was working then seemed to come on and off, I would tap the top of the speedometer and it would come on. Now nothing comes on. Anyone can help I appreciate it.

 

[the_dingman]

There are three light bulbs that illuminate the instrument cluster from the back. If you remove the bash panel above the steering wheel, there are four screws that hold in the instrument cluster, the simply reach around the back and disconnect the three wiring harnesses and the spedo cable (the cable is sometimes tricky to get on or off). Each wiring harness and the spedo have a clip that needs to be pressed to remove them. Once you have the cluster out, there are little black 'knobs' that can be removed at the back of the cluster for each indicator, and three green ones for the illumination. You can find replacement bulbs at your local auto parts store.

 

[4Runnin Eddie]

OHkay thanks, I know that taking off the cluster is kinda easy reaching around and using a screw driver to pop of the speedo cable , but putting it back will be a challenge. Any tips on how to make it easy to connect back ?

 

[Alabama4Runner]

It's not that hard to get back together. I swapped out my cluster for an SR5 cluster a few months ago and also installed all new bulbs. Cluster went right back in. It's a little tight and you might remove a bit of skin from the back of your hand but I even managed to avoid that.

 

[the_dingman]

You don't even need a screwdriver, the cable just has a retaining clip to hold it in place.

Putting it back on isn't too difficult, just be patient and reach back behind with two fingers and push the cable back into the slot, it'll click back into place. Work slowly, and be careful and it's a piece of cake.

I've noticed that not all the cables are the same length. My old '86 was about 2 inches shorter and a real pain to snap back in, my '87 and the '88 parts truck I stripped were both a little longer and far easier to remove and install.

The lights for the backlight are actually white lights with little green rubber 'condoms' on them to make them green. Usually after the years, they won't come off the old lamps, so you'll probably end up with white gauge lights. I've switched mine out to some blue LEDs I bought on ebay.

 

[4Runnin Eddie]

Awww you guys are very helpful. I got what I wanted for xmas from you guys. I hope I can fix them before the weekend. Cheers !

 

[Alabama4Runner]

Most of the autoparts stores will carry blue and red lights that will work for the backlights. I found one store with green but they only had one in stock. I replaced the green condom lights with blue ones.

Btw, if none of the lights are coming on, then it might be your dash dimmer rheostat. Those are prone to going out and might actually be your problem. It would be unusual for all 5 or 6 lights in your gauge console to die all at once. It's a little unclear from your first post if it's just your speedometer backlight or all of the lights.

 

[4Runnin Eddie]

Bama, its all the lights. The dimmer is kinda a new replacement. Yo Bama check your PM