85' Accord, 4 door, 1.8L with Weber carb, 5 speed MT...

My instrument panel lights are getting dimmer as time goes on and I took a crack at replacing them. I could not for the life of me figure out how to remove the instrument cluster...

The Honda service manual simply says remove the face plate and then the 4 screws holding the cluster in and pull out but that was a load of crap. There simply doesn't seem to be enough space to pull out the cluster.

I even removed the top circuit board that holds 2 small neo-wedge bulbs and still I could not pull out the instrument panel.

Now, the instructions said when the panel is pulled out then you can remove the wiring and speedo cable from the back of the panel and I never felt a lot of tension so I figure that's accurate and not what's holding me back.

Any thoughts or experience let me know, thanks!

 

After removing the bezel around the unit, remove 4 screws, tilt the top of the unit down and forward. That should give you room to remove cable, look with a light and mirror to see how to disconnect. Once that is off you can pull out more to remove connectors and then complete unit. Is it tight..yes, but by tilting forward some and wiggling it will come out.