so i recently restored a 1985 rx7 and everything is working flawlessly accept the bulb is out behind the cluster and i cannot figure out how to remove it to replace the bulb. anyone know of a way to do this?

 

unhook the speedo cable from the transmission first so give it enough slack to allow the cluster to come out. I think there are two screws in the cluster suround piece, and three in the actual cluster (from memory, not 100% sure). Once thoes are out and the speedo cable is off you should be about to finagle it out. It takes some finesse though lol.

 

There's more than one bulb that lights the cluster; 4 or five, I believe. If all of em are out, it's more likely your dimmer has an issue.

It's just barely possible to replace the dash illumination bulbs without pulling the cluster... but you need skinny lil girl hands and a tolerance for painful encounters with sharp edges. Much easier to do by pulling the cluster as cshaw describes.

 

i thought he meant only a blub was out, if they are all out then yes to what DD said above. If you recently restored your car, im assuming you had the interior out? if so there is a wire on the floor i believe around where the shifter goes that you may have plugged in that shouldnt be. it causes your dimmer to blow and your gauge lights to go out. but, ive never done that so i cant give exact info. Im sure someone else will though

 

That'd be the connectors for the ash tray light and the auto-trans shift position light, IIRC.

They're close together, and they will connect to each other... and they make a short in the dash light circuit if you do connect them. Or so I've read.

 

i had no idea there were more then one bulb. i only did an exterior restoration thus far. i have a 79 parts car but i dont believe it has the same sort of dimmer switch. do you know of a place that sells them of how i could fix the one i have?

 

Pretty sure there is a way to bypass the dimmer switch but then your dash lights will be at 100% at all times. This isnt an issue for most people. Pretty sure this topic is in the FAQ, but could be wrong as I am quite often.

 

FB and SA dimmers are different; FB's are still available, I think - used ones turn up often in the 1st gen parts section. You'd want to verify that it is the problem first, I'd think.

 

sent you a pm - figure out if it's bad or not, yeah? see if the lights for the heater controls change with the dimmer and you'll know :p