I would appreciate your advice on removing the dash on our 1991 190 E 2.6. I have the bottom panel and "roll bar" removed. Looking up into the underside of the dash I see the only way to get at the rear of the speedometer is to remove the air flow duct. I also see by other posts that there are five spring clips that hold the instrument panel in place. The questions I have are: is the special tool necessary or is there an alternative tool that can be used. What color is the speedometer cable. There is a blue cable that goes behind the heater duct. I have not removed any cables yet or the duct. It sure is tight in there. The car now has about 117000 miles on it, so I plan on changing most if not all of the bulbs so I only have to do this (hopefully) once. I have reviewed other threads on this issue. Some suggest proceeding from behind the dash others from the front, my preference is to remove the least amount of items from the underside of the dash as possible. Any advice you may have to offer on this would be very much appreciated. Thank-you.

MWBecker

On my '89 190E there are no clips retaining the cluster in place that I recall. I unscrewed the speedo cable and pushed the cluster out from behind. There is a rubber seal that surrounds the cluster that keeps it in place. You can also use a plastic tool (not metal, it will scratch) to pry the cluster out alittle bit at a time from the front. Just enough so you can get your fingers behind the front lip and then pull it out further. Pull it out enough so you can get our hand behind the unit and unplug the remaining connectors.

I believe I removed the steering wheel to make it easier, but with some manuvering, I believe it can be removed while in place. I could be wrong on that one. It had been a year or so since I had mine out.

__________________
Michael LaFleur

'05 E320 CDI - 86,000 miles
'86 300SDL - 360,000 miles
'85 300SD - 150,000 miles (sold)
'89 190D - 120,000 miles (sold)
'85 300SD - 317,000 miles (sold)
'98 ML320 - 270,000 miles (sold)
'75 300D - 170,000 miles (sold)
'83 Harley Davidson FLTC (Broken again) :-(
'61 Plymouth Valiant - 60k mikes
2004 Papillon (Oliver)
2005 Tzitzu (Griffon)
2009 Welsh Corgi (Buba)