Ok so I got it running again.. now to finish it up so I can drive it. Let me first say it was a HUGE PITA. On a scale of 1-10 on the difficulty scale I give this one a 7. It would have been worth my while to just replace the entire dash with a CJ style dash and call it done. Holy crap there are a ton of wires and at least a dozen connectors under there that have to be undone before you can pull the dash out. Here would be the first thing I would do if I were to do it again:
1. Take all the face plating off the guages. There are a dozen or so phillips head screws holding them on. Just go along your dash and start taking them off. There is a wierd ground behind the plastic below your speedo. When you take this plastic off around the Speedo you will see what I mean. Wala you see decade(s) of dirt stored up under here. Now take the black check light display out from between the speedo-tach. There are 5 phillips head screws holding it in. When you pull this out there are 2 wire clips attached behind the plastic. These are a PITA to take off, I used a standard screwdriver to pry them out (carefully).
2. Take out your heater controls. There are 4 phillips screws holding it on. Take off the 3 cables for your vent, heat, and defrost; these are a PITA to get unhooked also. There are 2 wires that work your blower so unhook them, then unhook the light display, YOU HAVE TO TWIST it to get it out. I broke mine off and found out later how to get it out. Then there is a wiring harness that hooks to your high, med, low, fan selector. Wala, it's out.
3. Take your radio out.
4. Take your steering wheel off.
5. Start taking your windshield down. I believe it is a T-45 bolt(s). Just get a full set of Torx head sockets and call it good. YOU WILL NEED THEM! (20 bucks at Wal-mart)
6. Take the Torx head bolts off from under the weather stripping off. They are a T-35.. I think. Take all them off around the speakers too. I took my doors off also just for ease of maint.
7. Take the phillips head screws out from under the weather stripping. They get stuck on the metal from the tub and make it a PITA to take the dash off. Do yourself a favor and take them out.
8. Start pulling your dash from your tub. There are a ton of connections under there and you just need to start taking them apart. They are keyed so I don't think there are any that will accidentaly fit together. After you remove your connections the dash just pulls right out. You have to angle it so you can get it around your turn signal. Make sure you put it back together as soon as you can cuz if you forget where all the connections go you are kinda screwed. I also found that there are a few connections under my dash that aren't even used. Probably for different models of Jeeps, they must have more to them for the dash or something. Mine was kinda basic.
I found my problem and replaced the wire that was burnt up and all the sudden it came to life. I put the dash back on and now I am trying to get my roll cage installed. I should have it done by this weekend (fingers crossed). I am also going to clean up the engine bay since it looks like crap, darn engine swaps!
Anyone have an extra horn cover for the stock YJ
. I broke mine. I can add pics if anyone is interested.
Andrew