Dashboard Out! Whats this? & Whats Next?

[supraguy@aol]

I'll have to do this in a couple months.
I think I might start by practicing on a junkyard car, and grabbing a couple spare heater core pipes while I'm trying it.

 

[Grandavi]

If you like I can pm you the list I have. It's supposed to be straight forward, but the reassembly takes a little memory of how things fit back together. Obviously I have never done it because I took the easy way out and had it done for me.
(I'm on holidays or I would just pm you now, lol.)

 

[destrux]

Doing a job multiple times will definitely cut the time down. I can change the clutch in this car in 45 minutes now. I know all the torque specs by heart, lol.

I'm hoping to never be that familiar with dashboard removal.

 

[shaeff]

Two hints:

1) Unplug the dash harnesses from their connectors in the kick panels. Do NOT try to remove the harness from the dashboard.
2) Do not remove the steering wheel. Remove the two (17?mm) bolts from the steering column, and let the wheel drop down onto the driver's seat. It gives you more than enough room to work, and is faster than removing the wheel.

After that it's just basically nuts, bolts, and screws. Have some new weatherstripping on hand, as the new heater core may or may not come with sufficient stuff to do the job.

 

[Orion ZyGarian]

Two hints:

1) Unplug the dash harnesses from their connectors in the kick panels. Do NOT try to remove the harness from the dashboard.
2) Do not remove the steering wheel. Remove the two (17?mm) bolts from the steering column, and let the wheel drop down onto the driver's seat. It gives you more than enough room to work, and is faster than removing the wheel.

After that it's just basically nuts, bolts, and screws. Have some new weatherstripping on hand, as the new heater core may or may not come with sufficient stuff to do the job.

Good info!

For the record, I believe the box for the car phone was in the passenger side in the back by the taillights

 

[mirage83]

Two things come to mind about dash work... Be very careful with the two plastic pins which mount on the back of the dash and fit into receptacles just below the edge of the windshield. They tend to be pretty fragile and Toyota doesn't offer them as replacement parts leaving salvage cars as the only source to replace them if they get broken during the removal or reinstallation of the dash.

Also, as long as you're in there go ahead and pull the dash reinforcement bar, clean off all the rust and paint or treat it before putting it back in place. They're usually pretty nasty rust sources, and leave rust stains on everything that they touch.