1983 regal speedometer removal

[Guest 83ddayregal]

hey guys im new to the forum... i just recently bought a 1983 regal 3.8 v6 and im having a problem with the speedometer.... and i keep blowing the fuse for the tail lights.. i have a pic of how far i got on the cluster removal i just cant seem to figure out how to take off the mechanism that turn the speedomter... if it even comes off... if anybody has any comments or have been through this before i could use all the info you got

thanks pics of the car up soon... its my project

[Guest 83ddayregal]

oh an fyi im removing the cluster to find out if there is a crossed wire... everytime i push on the cluster when the light switch is pulled out i blow the tail light fuse... i dont know what the heck is going on..... any and all info will help thanks

[Larry Schramm]

According to your picture it looks like you have the cluster out of the dash and you are trying to get the instrument/dash panel from the car. Question is why do you think the cluster is causing the tail light fuse to blow? I do not remember anything in the dash that will blow the tail light fuse in the cluster. The places that I would look would be in the steering column, where the wiring routs by the park brake at the bottom of the A pillar and points to the back of the car. Also does the car have any aftermarket stuff on it? If so I would disconnect it to see if the problem goes away. I have had a number of cars that had stuff added and that caused tons of problems because the installers just went looking for a hot wire and then the problems started. Good luck.

[Guest 83ddayregal]

the only reason i think its the cluster is when i first got the car the tail lights and everything worked i moved the steer wheel numerous times up and down i even drove the car around and nothing blew.... when i drove the car i noticed the mph gauge didnt work and my fuel gauge didnt work.... so when i got back to the house to start looking for what the problem was i pushed on the cluster to give it pressure to undo one of the bolts and all of a sudden the fuel gauge started moving then i heard a pop..... checked fuses tail light fuse was blown i replaced it pushed on it again popped again.... also when i put my hand behind the right side of the instrument panel and touched the green paper thing i guess its the sending unit for the instrument panel a couple of the lights on the right hand side lit up i took my hand off it and they went away... do i just have a bad instrument panel or whats going on???

[Larry Schramm]

If it is on the right side that you push, you might want to consider taking out the radio and looking from that point. I think if not you will need to take a lot more of the IP out unless you look from under the dash. Does the car have any aftermarket items like a radio, alarm system, etc...?

[Guest 83ddayregal]

it does have an after market radio... i only used the cars poisitve, ground, wires from the cars harness then i just ran the speakers using the radios harness.... all of the cars speakers were blown so i didnt want to use the stock wiring harness..... and i think the guyt at had the car before me put two dome lights in the back of the car on the sides and ran the wires from under the dash... up the side... went across to the middle.. i have t tops so he ran the wires under the pillar in the middle for the ttops to the back underneith the headliner... i will post up pics later today of everything... thanks for helpin out so far!!