FINALLY Fixed bulbs in trip / gas mileage switch

[treehan77]

Well everybody said it wasn't easy for the bottom switches. Its not easy! but i got it done, used two spare bulbs i had from when i replaced one of the top switches that previous owner's wedding ring had destroyed. getting switch out, de-soldering, soldering in new bulbs was absolute cakewalk. but whoa putting the switch back in was near impossible. almost had to resort to pulling the steering wheel. tried for quite some time to get the plug back in with absolutly no slack, trying every tool, fishing line, wire etc. no go. in the end, i had to disassemble the switch and get the plug plugged into the bottom part of the switch inside the wheel. then reassemble the switch inside the steering wheel. fought me at every turn. here's some pics, i don't recommend doing this unless you have beer to drink afterward. literally took hours of thinking, trying and taking breaks.

here's the donor board i used for the two bulbs i needed to replace after i removed one bulb and its holder. this is from the radio function button, top tight on steering wheel.
back of board before removing bad bulbs and holders.
trip board after disassembly. you can see the donor bulb in the background after desoldering from donor board. i then desoldered these two bulbs and holders, and soldered in the donor bulbs. easy!!!!!
the blue rubber thing back on. yeah yeah i didn't both with the bulb holders, the leads were too short and screwed up.
the big problem, can't plug the plug into the back of switch with no slack at all, no matter what i tried. picks, hooks, wire nothing. was getting worried i was tearing up the plug and/or wires and i'd really be screwed. continued next post...

 

[treehan77]

watched this video:

ok, try anything at this point. it works! now gotta wrestle with the switch to fit back together while inside the steering wheel. still tough, but cake compared to trying to plug it in assembled! next problem the video doesn't solve: the little red plungers fall out every time due to gravity. need some bubble gum lol. tried letting the steering wheel all the way down and driving up ramps. red things still fell out because of gravity every time! aarrrgh!!! actually, ended up using teenie amounts of duct sealant (kinda like plumbers putty) to keep them in their home and not fall out every time i tried to snap the switch back together. . and finally, it works. sheesh. mind you, getting a new switch wouldn't really avoid 90% of this mess, since the short wire is the problem. oh well, it works and i didn't have to mess with the airbag and taking the steering wheel off. now i'm sure these old lights will fail next week lol.

 

[05Single]

Damn that was a painful 10 minutes to watch lol. I gotta do mine. Dreading the day.
thanks for the info.

 

[Fosscore]

Oh man....that is not encouraging, but thanks for the write up. Great info since this is a common problem. smh

 

[treehan77]

Forgot to mention I was able to assemble the switch kind of after I got the plug I. The bottom part, enough slack to put it together where I could get to it while already plugged in. I wasn't able to snap it together in the wheel like the video.

 

[MrBalll]

Need to do this to two of mine. Does not look like a fun project.

Edit : Just saw this video. Be warned the beginning is really loud.
Is there enough slack to do this or is he really tugging on that plug?

 

[treehan77]

basically zero slack. Just enough to get a screwdriver in there to release the plug, but not enough to plug it back in. At least not for me, and I tried with all kinds of tools and different methods

 

[SRTH8R]

I just spent the $25 on the new switch, and swapped it out in like 5 min.

 

[treehan77]

I just spent the $25 on the new switch, and swapped it out in like 5 min.

That's awesome. I wish you knew how you did it. Fixing the old one was cake. To me putting in a new one woulda been same problem, guess you had more slack