1g Gauge cluster and DASH removal

Here is a How To on removing your stock gauge cluster and dash in your 1g. I did this removal on a 1994 Talon automatic, but all other models/years will be the same. Only differences you may find is different plugs in the vynil peices of the dash (for fogs ect)

BEFORE YOU START
This is a removal only. Follow it backwards to reinstall

Some of the metal brackets you will be removing are SHARP. I will point them out

If you get to the step of removing the dash, and it doesnt move, recheck your work

This is how I remove dashes. I jump around from spot to spot alittle, but it works for me. You can do it in a different order, this is just a guide to get you in the right direction

GOOD LUCK

Tools You Need
3/8 Rachet
3/8 Extension (I used a 6")
10mm Socket
2 Flat screwdrivers (one should be long and skinny, other should just be skinny)
Phillips screwdriver(s)

Im linking the pictures from a free hosting site. Hopefully they stay up and working.
If you have any questions, just PM me.

STEP 1
Inside your car, along both sides of the center console are carpeted cover peices. Remove the small round caps to reveal phillips screws. Remove the screws on both driver and passenger side. Pull the covers out, they may need to be bent slightly, but will come out.
Step 2
Between the gauge cluster vynil peice, and the vynil peice that has your heating/AC controls on it, there is a skinny plastic peice. There is also one between your center console and the vynil peice with the heating/AC controls. These pop out rather easy. Just pull out on them with your fingers. Once removed you will be able to see some screws hidden below them.

 

[HighPsi92GST]

Step 3
Remove the 2 screws between the gauge cluster vynil and the heating/ac control vynil peice.

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Next, inside the opening of the gauge cluster, there is 2 screws screwed into the top on sort of an angle as seen in the top of the second picture. The last 2 are in the bottom of the peice, also screwed up into the peice.

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Pull the vynil peice front CAREFULLY. Do not tug or pull front too far. There are a few wires connected into the back. Unhook them, and remove the vynil peice.

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Once removed, you will be able to see the gauge cluster better, and where it is bolted in. There are 4 screws as shown below. Take the 3 screws out, then carefully pull the gauge cluster STRAIGHT out of the dash.

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[HighPsi92GST]

Step 4
With the cluster removed, you will now be able to see 2 10mm bolts. Remove these next.

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Now with your driver side door open, look near where the dash speaker is located. There is a screw near the door jam, hidden when the door is closed. Take this screw out. When the screw is out, you can remove the speaker cover peice. In my picture, you will notice there is no speaker there. You do NOT need to remove the speaker. There was none there when I opened up the covers. Obviously the previous owner removed them.
There is a 10mm bolt that was hidden by the speaker cover before, remove this bolt.
Do this same thing on the passenger side. I will not mention it later

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[HighPsi92GST]

Step 5
Remove the center vent. To do this, you need both your flat screw drivers. I broke the vent peices out of mine to give you a better view of what is going on. Stick your one screw driver in through the vent close to the side. There is a metal tab that need to be pryed towards the center of the vent. While holding that out, pry out on the vent with the other screw driver as shown. Once you have one side popped out alittle, do the other side.

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You can then pop the center vent out, revealing 2 more screws that need to be removed. Do that now.

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Its now time to remove the radio/cd player/ whatever is in that slot. I do not have pictures of how to remove the entire radio system, but will describe it the best I can.

First, use a small flat screw driver to pop out the black plastic peice that surrounds the radio. It should pop out pretty easy. Once this is out, you will be able to see 4 screws which hold the radio unit it. They are the RED circled screws in the picture below. Once you have them out, pull the radio unit out. Unplug the antana, and wiring harness, place the unit somewhere safe.

Remove the 2 screws circled in blue as well as the 3 between them that I forgot to circle.
The two bolts that are circled in yellow need to be removed, but not in this step I will refer back to this picture in a little bit.

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I MADE A MISTAKE! - the 3 screws between the 2 circled in blue MUST be removed.

 

[HighPsi92GST]

Step 5 continued
Now pull all of the knobs out of your HVAC controls. They come out really easy.
The vynil peice will come front now, so pull it out alittle. There are a ton of wires plugged into the back, so unplug them now.

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After they are unplugged you can pull the peice away and set it out of the way. Go back to the picture in the post before this, where the two bolts were circled in yellow. With the vynil peice out of the way, you can now remove these two bolts.
WARNING Be careful removing this peice of metal. You have to twist, and turn it alittle, the back of it is VERY sharp. The threaded metal area WILL cut you if you are not careful. I have done these dashes dozens of times, and got dozens of cuts. Just my warning.

Once the peice of metal is removed, it will be easier to get the dash out later.

Next you have to remove the 4 screws holding the yellowish unit that the HVAC knobs used to be on as shown below. The two that are NOT circled, you do not need to remove.

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[HighPsi92GST]

Step 6
Now its time to work in an uncomfortable position for awhile. I did all this work kneeling outside of the car reaching in. First we will unbolt a bunch of stuff on the driver side, then move to the passenger side, and basically do the same thing.

First we will remove the vynil peice under the steering colum, that is near your knees while sitting in the car.
Remove the small square shaped caps with a screw driver, then remove the 2 bolts behind them. There are also 2 screws down under the peice, as show. Remove these also. The vynil peice will now come lose, and you can set it on the floor. The hood latch wire will still be connected, so unless you remove that, you will not be able to go far with the peice.
In the picture, ignore the carpeted peice that you SHOULD have removed earlier. Mines still in there for some reason but not screwed in.

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Now remove the 2 10mm bolts circled in red below. If you ever had your ECU out, you know what these bolts do (hold the ECU in place). The first (all the way to the left) yellow circle is the screw that holds in a small carpet peice, remove the screw and the small carpeted peice. The other 2 10mm (circled in yellow) bolts hold the metal brackets in place. While they will not be coming out with the dash, taking these bolts out gives them some room to move, making everything a lot easier.
The blue circled wire with the arrow is just showing where the white plug used to be, so that you can tell what your looking at. Mine was pulled out for some reason.

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There is one screw that was hidden by that other peice of vynil before. The screw is on the left side of the steering column. Mine has a blue connector on it, yours most likly won't.

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[HighPsi92GST]

Step 6 Continued
Before moving to the passenger side to do some work, we will remove two vent duct work peices that are going to be in the way. I tried to label the picture, so you can figure out where this is. Take out both screws, then pull out the two vent peices.

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Step 7
Move to the passenger side and get in the same position as you were in before on the driver side.
We will now remove the 2 10mm bolts at the bottom of the bracket, like we did on the other side, and also the last bolt holding in the ECU (all 10mm circled in red) The blue circled screw holds in the peice of small carpet cover, just like the other side. Take this off too.

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The carpet peice will have some kind of plastic snap screw near the firewall that it slides off of with a good tug. When I tugged on it, the plastic cover peice under the dash (RED arrow below) fell off. If it doesnt fall off for you, pop it off before continuing. Also, with the carpet peice out of the way, you can now pull the ecu out. It has to come out as shown, or you will have a tough time. Once out, unplug the wires (circled in blue)

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Before moving onto the next step, near the door, next to the glove box area is a screw up into the dash. Remove that now.

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[HighPsi92GST]

Step 8

Time to remove the glove box. Open it up and clean it out. Once your done this, squeeze the 2 sides of the box towards the center. There are tabs on the sides that stop it from opening too far. When you squeeze it together, you can get them tabs past the stops, and let the box hang open as shown in the picture below.
Theres alot going on in the picture below. You must remove all 5 screws that are circled, as well as the 1 10mm bolt. Where the 3 screws are in a row near the latching part of the box, only remove the center one.

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Now shake the box alittle, it will come lose and fall to the floor. Be careful though, there is a plug for the light in there hooked to the back. Unplug that now.

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[HighPsi92GST]

Step 9

ALMOST FINISHED! Just a few things left to get out of the way. Make your way back to the driver side and get down in your position again. Now we could have done this earlier, but remember, I did this the way I wanted, and as I got to each thing. So the order of doing it is not the fastest, but easiest for me.
Now we will unhook some wires. The wiring harness is circled below. Follow it to wherever it goes. It plugs into several spots on the fuse box, so carefully remove each and every one.

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Now we will get the speedometer cable out of the way. This can be tricky, so read carefully before trying it.
There are tabs on each side of the speedometer connector. Squeeze these together, allowing you to pull then entire white peice out of the dash. With this whole peice out, you must hold onto the round piece, and push the outter clip back towards the dash again until you can remove it from the cable. It may take alittle time, but is possible to do.

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Now, in the opening where your radio used to live, reach inside here with your rachet and socket, remove the 4 10mm bolts up in the top of the opening as shown below.

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[HighPsi92GST]

Step 10

Take a break, we are almost done and the worst part is next

Well everything is unbolted now, as long as you followed all my directions. Everything should be unplugged as well. So now let get this dash out of the car.

Open BOTH doors on the car, as you wil probably need to move from side to side a few times. While sitting in the car, in either seat, grab ahold of SOMETHING on the dash and try to shake it loose. It will probably be held up alittle, especially if it was never removed before. When it comes lose, slide it as far as you can away from the windshield.

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Now pull up on the bottom of the dash, and lean it back towards the windshield. You may have to slide it around alittle because it will get caught on stuff. But once you get it tilted, pull the dash as far away from the winshield as you can once again.

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Now head to the driver side, and pull up on that side of the dash, sliding it up and over the steering column. It may get caught alittle, slide it around to get it to go up and over. Now the passenger side will be hanging down alittle, the driver side should be up on top of the column

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Now go back to the passenger side and and carefully pull the dash out of the car. Do this slowly, incase someone hooked up some extra wires or something over the years that get hung up now.

Hopefully everything went smoothly for you.

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If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, PM me. I will be glad to help out. Also if you have a suggestion, or would like some other interior/exterior removal/installation tech guide, PM me and Ill see what I can do.

 

[speyer]

This is a great thread, I was wondering if anyone could update with photos or have the original photos since they all seem to be gone now