L320 Speedo/Guage replace-details

[zenndog]

I recently bought a guage cluster for my L320 so I can replace the speedometer. The speedometer in my truck has never worked so thanks to pl521sss for pm'ing me to offer me this cluster. I am a little disappointed about the pics I took but here they are.

 

 

 

 

At this point I thought I would remove the whole guage cluster so I didn't have to try to fit my hands up under the dash to remove/reinstall the speedo

I had to remove the ignition, the wiper switch, and the headlight switch to do this, plus three wing nuts with studs

 

 

 

I didn't take pics of how I removed the ignition nut, I used a flat blade screwdriver with some electrical tape on the blade to protect the crome on the nut. Then I place the blade of the screwdriver in one of the slots in the nut and tap by hand, or a small peen hammer if very tight.

 

 

 

The wiper switch and light switch knobs have a flat head set screw

 

 

 

Then I used an adjustable wrench to unscrew the nut that holds the switches to the dash, the nuts were the same on both switches.

 

Once all this was done I discovered that the column shift brackets were in the way of the guage panel so it wouldn't come out. Oh well, I decided not to disassemble the column at this point and just continued with the job. It did make it easier to put the speedo in to have the panel loose. The hardest screw to reach was the lower inside screw on the speedo, but by pulling out the bottom of the guage I could see it from the front of the dash and aim the screwdriver and screw. That way I only needed two or three extra hands and managed to drop the screw only 6 times instead of 20.

 

 

Here is the back of the speedo that came out of the truck

 

 

here are the two side by side

 

 

 

 

 

The replacement speedo had a scratch in the glass, I took the glass out of the old speedo and put it in the replacement. The original foam was dust so I put some new foam in as a gasket between the bezel and the glass. The bezel was held in by three small flat head screws. Two were missing on the replacement so I used the screws from the speedo I removed. Hope all this makes sense.

 

 

These are the screws that hold in the speedo to the guage panel, you need two. I had to reach in from under and behind the dash to screw them in. The screw between the switches and the speedo was easy, the screw between the speedo and the other guage was a pain to get, and it has a ground wire that ounts to it as well.

 

 

here is a picture of the ground wire on the cluster that the replacement speedo came out of. When installing the speedo in the truck this screw is between the guages above the column behind a web of wires. E-ticket ride.

 

 

 

Here is the finished job.

 

 

 

 

Here I am getting on the freeway. Hey, now I know how fast this 40+ year old speedo says I am going. Cool.

 

I just realized that the speedo was at 34 miles and then it is at 106 on the odometer, I will have to make sure it is working right, I don't remember driving that much but who knows, that was a busy weekend in LA and I may have taken that picture of the getting on the freeway after driving all over. Oh well.

Edited September 21, 2009 by zenndog

[mklotz70]

Nice write up :) I'll refer back to it when I put the 100mph speedo in my NL :)

Edited September 22, 2009 by mklotz70

[zenndog]

Nice write up :) I'll refer back to it when I put the 120mph speedo in my NL :)

 

Is that a stock item from another model, sure its not 120 kph?:D

 

Pic?

 

[mklotz70]

I think the best we've come up with previously is a similar year 312 :)