I've gotten past what most people consider the difficult part, which is dislodging the hood from the dashboard, but now I can't seem to pull the whole assembly far enough away to unplug the gauge cluster. It doesn't help that my cluster is only secured to the hood with one of the four screws (the one closest to the cigarette lighter. I've read everything I can find on this process, but it seems like no one else has had much difficulty because the instructions always seem to say "unplug all of the connectors," as if it's a piece of cake. The main problem is that I can't get my hand far enough behind the cluster no matter which side I try from. Is it possible to detach the top part of the hood at this point? So far I haven't even managed to unplug the connector for the headlight motor button. If anyone has any tips I'd hugely appreciate it.

 

Sorry, I've had the hood back, but never had to go deeper and it was a long time ago. I did search in the Interior/Exterior/Audio section and found this...
https://www.rx7club.com/interior-ext...e-hood-520831/

Unfortunately that link to a PDF is no longer good, but there might be something in it that would help. You could try searching with some other terms too.