Ford Ranger / B-Series :: 1997 - Instrument Panel Light Bulb Replacement

I just finished replacing the instrument panel light bulbs on my 1997 Ranger XL, 2.3L, 2WD pickup. I wanted to share how I did this. First of all, if you never have done this before, go slow and take your time removing the dash panels as they are plastic molding and break easily. Allow yourself about an hour to complete the task. You will need smaller sized hand sockets to remove the screws. The very first thing you should do is remove the negative battery cable from the battery. This way you will not risk shorting out anything electrical as well as possibly triggering the airbag in the steering wheel column.

The key piece in starting the process is to remove the radio first and then central console panel that houses the radio. It pops out very easily by gently prying it out in the four corners. Once you get that piece out remove the screws the support the lower knee panel. In order to get that piece off you will have to remove the two screws the hold the hood release lever in place. Get under the dashboard and look up as you lay looking upward near the brake pedal. Pull the hood release lever and you will see the two gold screws. Remove them. This will free up the panel on the under side. The top side of the panel will pop out if you pry it gently on the top two corners.

Next, you will see a metal panel underneath the knee panel. Remove this metal panel as well. Now you will be able to remove the instrument cluster panel piece. There are some visible screws holding this in place, remove them and gently pry the cluster panel out. Once the cluster panel cover is out you will have to actually remove the gauge cluster itself by removing the the four screw bolts that secure it in place. After the screws are out, gently work it out of the dash slowly as you will need to disconnect three electric plug harnesses in the back.

After it is unplugged and out, on the backside of the instrument cluster you will see some round, black colored thumb screw bulb housings that house the light bulb. Just twist them and turn making sure to go in the right direction. Feel it out for the direction, I cannot remember which way it turns. The bulb housings are labeled "ILL" on the circuit overlay. I recommend you replace all the bulbs as you might not want to have to do this again in the near future. Once all the bulbs are tightly seated and installed just reverse the above process for installation. This is a fairly easy job and like I said it takes about an hour. Make sure you test the lights after finishing.