1972 dash illumination

[Cadillac Fleetwood]

Rear support for the radio?  Those radios and tape players are awfully heavy!

Charles Fares

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

No, it is on the left side of the steering column, and could be a brace for the dash cluster.

Bruce.

[Roger Zimmermann]

Thanks a lot Bruce! I see that you were also not afraid to remove almost everything!
You are most probably right regarding that bracket: when I saw it, the screw was half way in. Thanks to the pictures, I will also search about its purpose.

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

I wish I could admit to stripping the car for the pictures, but, sadly, I took these pictures back in October/November 2013 when I fitted the Metric Speedo, along with pulling the engine for a total rebuild, plus sealing the transmission to stop leaks.

Completed the rebuild and putting everything back together a month before I got crook, which was just as well.

Bruce.

[Roger Zimmermann]

Rear support for the radio?  Those radios and tape players are awfully heavy!

Charles, there is a "L" shaped bracket at the rear of the radio which is attached at the dash.

[Matti R]

Hi.
I checked my -71 Eldo, and that bracket is horizontal and pointing towards the driver. Can not see where it is attached.
(sorry, the photo should be rotated 90 degrees clockwise.)

[Roger Zimmermann]

Thanks to your help, I found it! The bracket is attached at the other end at the instrument cluster; I put an arrow at the cluster in miles. This avoid fore and aft movements. It was not easy to r & r the screw at the cluster, but finally I could. The dash is not completed.

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

Nice overlay, or did you cut out the original and insert the kph marks?

Did you change the odometer gears to Kilometres?

Now I will have to check to see if I connected my bracket to the cluster body.   Maybe next time I am in there for any reason.

Bruce.

[Roger Zimmermann]

The instrument cluster is from another '72 export car which was destroyed years ago. The owner kept some parts and was happy to sell that cluster. The odometer will be in km too.
I believe I showed already how GM modified quickly the miles cluster for the export vehicles.

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

I too posted a story on my speedo conversion, using a '73 dash cluster that I purchased from a fellow CLC Member.   That was back in 2013.   Will have to look at it.

I converted mine when it had just tipped over 100,000 miles, and therefore could recalibrate the odometer back to 0, and therefore could keep an accurate record and proof of distance travelled, that is unless my car had travelled 200,000 miles.

Bruce.

[Roger Zimmermann]

As my car had something like 20020 miles, I converted that in km and turned the dials manually to have the desired number in km.
This afternoon, I did a short drive to check the speedometer (it's OK) and the dash illumination. Our region has a lot of tunnels, it was a good opportunity to do the test. I'm now happy! And the rheostat is allowing really to dim the dash light.