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I'm working on cleaning up my LS swap wiring, essentially I don't want to see any unnecessary wires in the engine bay, this means I need to get the main structure of the dash out.
My main concern is the HVAC ducting, do I need to remove all of those little 7mm screws and leave the ducting in place when I remove the dash?
I'm also relocating where my ECM is going, there is a big hollow spot in the dash on the passenger side, I just need the room in there to make a bracket to mount it in there.
The dash comes out almost entirely intact, under the dash pad there are a few screws to the inside cowl, then under the corners near the kick panels on each side, and there's a bolt above the column. Some years might be a bit different, but at least on the later years, the wiring harness back to the spearer on the passenger's side, the fuel pump bulkhead connector, and taillight harness are part of the dash harness. So detach those wires and work your way forward.
So I don't need to worry about the hvac piping for the defrost vents that point towards the side windows? I just wasn't sure if I needed to pull all of those 7mm screws out to leave the ducting in place or if it comes right out with the dash.
No, you can leave them screwed to the dash hull. I've done it both ways, it's much easier to leave the vents etc in the dash. It makes it easier to remove and strangely it sorta helps keep the hull from being broken.
Awesome, so just remove the main (they looked like 13mm) nuts/bolts and the HVAC venting comes for the ride.
Tomorrow I should have that out, and the engine/trans dropped from under the car and hopefully at least my drivers floor cut out since the initial job was floor replacement which somehow developed in to this.
Alll the hvac ducting is attached to the dash shell, you cen't take the dash out without pulling all the ducting. Those screws at the front of the dash are not holding the vents to the car, that is how the dash is supported at the front.
There should be 4 10mm head screws and at least 6 7mm screws holding the dash to the body. Then there are the nuts at the steering column that hod the dash to that bracket. I may be forgetting about a few
Thanks guys, I got it out not long after the advice here. The worst part was crawling up underneath to get all the wiring disconnected at the steering column/c100 area.
Everything is out, The heater box and pedals are out as well. Found a bit of rust on the passenger cowl area in a tricky spot to get the welding torch up in to of course. Other than that, the hidden rust I've found is all stuff I expected to find.
I got to refresh my memory after posting in this thread. Really wasn't sure if I wanted to pull the dash from my project, but I'm replacing the seam sealer while it's apart and have some tack welds to place on the firewall, along with some wiring changes. Finally decided it'd just be best to pull the dash out of the way. Probably would have been easier to fix the kick panel rust with the dash out, but oh well...
I'm kinda new here
good luck with the 1984Trans Am dash to a 1990 Formula,hope it all works out.
I'm kinda doing something like that. Just shorth on time.
I want to transfer a 1982/84 dash benzel in my 1986 trans am
Reason is ,every one probably knows,the 1982 to 84 models had a cool dash benzel that kind of look like a airplane instrument cluster.
Don't know why,but that just look so good to me,when Pontiac later change the bezel dash,I never like it.
I got the parts including the light switch that is different from those years.
Nice work and nice pictures guys, cheers
03-29-2017, 06:23 PM
