Stupid question about dash lights.........

[Anonymous]

My 1980 GS 1100 has a bulb burned out on the tachometer side of the dash, and I was wondering: How the hell do I get it apart????? DO I have to take out the headlight or what???

Thanks!!

[Hap Call]

Re: Stupid question about dash lights.........

My 1980 GS 1100 has a bulb burned out on the tachometer side of the dash, and I was wondering: How the hell do I get it apart????? DO I have to take out the headlight or what???

Thanks!!

You have to pull the headlight out. There are two nuts that hold the instrument cluster on the bike. Remove these two nuts and disconnect the four multi-wire connectors and the four individual wires (mark them so you know where they go...they are color coded but it is still a good idea to mark them) and pull the cluster out.

Put the cluster on the kitchen table then apologize to your wife for taking up the room. Turn the cluster over and remove the four or five screws that hold the back cover on. Then remove the four or five nuts that hold on the mounting bracket. Loosen the bracket that all the wires run through.

There will be a sub-harness that the five rubber insulated bulb sockets are attached to. Gently pry the rubber bulb sockets out, replace the bulbs (do them all, since you have it out already and they are all getting old) then reassemble in reverse order.

It will take a couple of hours...not difficult, just time consuming. Keeping track of the small screws and nuts is the hardest part. Oh, and if you can, take a picture of the routing of the wire harness before you pull it off...not necessary but it could be helpful if you forget the proper routing.

Apologize to you wife again for taking longer than you expected, mount the assembly back on the bike, reconnect all wires (now would be a good chance to clean several of the connections with contact cleaner), reconnect the headlight and put it back in. Voila!!! Bright tach, speedo, and fuel gauge!


Hap
Good luck!

[Anonymous]

HAP ARE THEY ALL 12 VOLT GRAIN OF WHEAT LAMPS??????

[Anonymous]

Great! Thanks for the tips.......

One more thing, what light bulb do I need? It only has Stanley 12v3.4amp on it, no numbers........

I was going to run to the Radio shack, but they were closed already......

[Anonymous]

hap....sounds like you did that job a few times!

[argonsagas]

What bulb to use?

Just take yours into any auto supply shop and they will be able to look it up and give you a replacement.

[Anonymous]

Wow, my bike just has two acorn nuts holding on the back of my tach. I just remove them and pull out the rubber plug that holds the bulb.

Steve