the hooks help you save your dash
 

The hooks help you save your dash from ungly dents and scratches. I've pulled the cluster plenty of times without disconecting the speedo cable first. You don't yank it out, all you need is to get enough space for your arm to fit in and unscrew the cable first.;)

Not sure why this is a separate post, but 1) how would pushing the cluster from behind (after undoing the speedo) dent or scratch the dash? Seems to me that the wire pullers that you have to slip around the cluster have a bigger risk of doing damage than pushing the cluster out from the back with your hands; and 2) by pulling out the cluster to accomodate your hands means that you're not only pulling on the speedo cable the length of the cluster depth, but also the distance needed to create that gap for your fingers . . . is plenty far enough to risk stretching the speedo cable so that you have a nice bouncy speedometer needle when you put everything back together, but hey, that's just my opinion, I could be wrong . . . :D

so, what is the right procedure? did pull out my cluster
yesterday but chickened out. was planning on repairing
my odo.

sorry hit wrong button
 

MTI, Anyhow I was refering to using a flat screwdriver to pry the cluster out of the dash. I just though going through the footwell would be more time consuming and unnecesary. You really don't have to pull all that much and I haven't had any problems with this method plus it takes less than a minute. But I guess it could be done that way. I learned to do it from the techs and didn't knew otherwise but your technique sounds good.