1980 733i - opening up dash to replace lights?

How would I go about removing the clear plate over the dash, to get to the
gear selection lights?
Need to replace the D and N bulbs, also the front foglight bulb, and the
indicator bulb.
Can't see a way to do this - help!

Car is right hand drive, located in Australia. Manual is not helpful, merely
says the bulb type.

-mark

Mark wrote:
>
> How would I go about removing the clear plate over the dash, to get to the
> gear selection lights?
> Need to replace the D and N bulbs, also the front foglight bulb, and the
> indicator bulb.

You don't. The clear bit comes out with the cluster. Look from below and
above the clear panel I'll bet you'll find a pair of screws. You will
also need to undo the bottom section, not tried that on an E23 but on
the six series the screws are hidden under little cover panels.

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> You don't. The clear bit comes out with the cluster. Look from below and
> above the clear panel I'll bet you'll find a pair of screws. You will
> also need to undo the bottom section, not tried that on an E23 but on
> the six series the screws are hidden under little cover panels.

Thankyou muchly.

Now, it appears the previous owner has removed the sockets altogether! I'm
missing four all up, any chance of spares?

-mark

"Mark" <nukeleer#internode.on.net> wrote in message
...
>> You don't. The clear bit comes out with the cluster. Look from below and
>> above the clear panel I'll bet you'll find a pair of screws. You will
>> also need to undo the bottom section, not tried that on an E23 but on
>> the six series the screws are hidden under little cover panels.
>
> Thankyou muchly.
>
> Now, it appears the previous owner has removed the sockets altogether! I'm
> missing four all up, any chance of spares?

Some instrument light bulbs have the "socket" piece attached to the bulb.
Maybe this is one of those?

-Fred W

> Some instrument light bulbs have the "socket" piece attached to the bulb.
> Maybe this is one of those?

Yes, i've pulled out another to check.
The bulb plugs into the socket, then the socket locks in to the backboard of
the cluster via a hole with locking tabs, turn the socket to lock it in.
No wiring, backboard has copper tracks, rather like a giant PCB, to show
voltage, etc.

Next step was removing the red windows at the top of the cluster, it's 1000%
brighter now - can see what I'm doing at night for once. Time to change the
colours, with something not quite as opaque as the originals.

-mark