Pilothouse Instrument Cluster Accessibility

[grey beard]

Pilothouse Instrument Cluster Accessibility

If you ever tried to gain access to the rear of a Pilothouse instrument cluster, you foud that the unit will not pull out ef the dash easily. There are three reasons for this: the length of the wires in the wiring harness, the length of the temperature guge capillary tube, and the rigidity of the oil tubing that connects to the oil pressure gauge Out of sheer frustration over not being able to gatn access to my own dash instruments, I made a workaround to solve this problem.

First, I lengthened each wire that connects to the ammeter and fuel gauges. Then I replacecd he oil predssure steel line with one about a foot longer. The extra length was taken up in a loop which I formed around a WD40 rattle can, that rests just next to the horn, outside the firewall. This loop forms an area that has some give in it, which allows me to pull the gauge cluster rearwards at least eight inches to gain access to the rear area for testing and diagnosis.

The third issue – that of the temperature gauge capillary tube - was a little easier to remedy. This tubing cannot be lengthened since it is filled with a pressurized gas, and must be handled carefully so as to never kink or twist the tubing. The tubing is held in place at the firewall area by a special clamp that has two vertical screws and two horizontal screws that go into the firewall, itself. Clamped into this assembly are the temperature gauge tubing and the throttle and choke cables. These two control cables are a little thicker than the temperature gauge tubing

I fund that by placing the temperature tube on the left - or driver’s side of the clamp and the two cables on the right, I could slide the tubing in and out of the clamp as needed without loosening the clamp, itself.

In this fashion, I was able to pull my dash cluster back far enough to change wires or gauges as needed.

Now all my dash gauges work as they should. If a prolem develops in the future, I can get in there and solve it rationally.