Drive indicator 97A6Q

[Franco Barber]

Hello,

These are my notes from just having replaced mine in April:

First, I used a putty knive to pry up the coin holder in the console
that has the diagram/switch/lights.  There were spring clips front
and back holding it in place.   Once those came loose, I tried to lift
it out.  It was stil held in place by what looked like two connectors
with really short wires.  I could lift the whole thing up about 1" max.

How to remove the connector towards the front was obvious.
The one towards the back wasn't.  So, I figured, let me get the
front one first.  Used a screwdriver to pry the tabs back and
pulled ... off it came.  Off came the one in back too!  Turns
out the one in back isn't so much a connector as a switch.

The whole lower body of the switch came off.  I couldn't figure
out how to separate the connector from the switch, so maybe it's
meant to come off that way.  This left the switch contacts and two
LEDs exposed and vulnerable.

Light bulb replaced.  Used radio shack 272-1154 bulb.
They are soldered in.  There are actually three
light bulbs in there.  One provides light towards the back of
the car, one towards the front.  Then there's a third lamp which
lights up green in the middle of the rear diff when the lock is engaged.

I had to replace the forward lamp.  You've got to disassemble the
unit to get to this.  There were a couple screws holding the connector
on, and then I don't recall exactly how but you've got to pry the
rest of it apart.  It was pretty obvious when looking at it.

The tricky part was making the lamp stay in place, hanging upside
down from the pc board, while I soldered it in from behind.

I used a Weller temperature controller soldering iron, but I think
any low to medium wattage fine tip iron should work fine.

Put it back together, and it worked!

Reassembled by plugging the switch in first, then the connector,
then testing my work, and then pushing the whole thing back into
place.

Hope this helps.

Franco


On Tue, Aug 19, 2003 at 08:37:04PM +0000, walian at att.net wrote:
> Hello all,
>
>  I noticed this morning that my Drive indicator on the dash doesn't
> illuminate when the lights are on. I can still see the PRDNL2L1 indicator
> however it just isn't back lighted when the lights are on. Is this a simple
> fix or something that I should just live with.
>
> Thanks
>
> Frank
>

--
Franco Barber                   feb at febsun.cmhnet.org
95 A6Q w/Gamma CD mit RDS!      Columbus, Ohio  USA
95 A6Q 5spd w/HCB-30 bluetooth car kit!