No lights in Insturment Cluster

[Ghettoguy4x4]

I have a 91 hardbody 4 cyl 4x4 5 speed. No Instrument cluster lights, I took the cluster out and looked at the bulbs a good majority of them are burned, are they replacable? The filament looks to be soldered to the tabs, now has anyone replaced just the bulbs? I'm thinking of either cutting the filament off, then putting new bulbs on each one(all 8 of, BLAH!) and soldering the filament back on to the tabs or does the dealer sell the tabs with new bulbs? Any help on this one would be great guys, Thanks!

[Packman5280]

the newer ones may be different, but usually you can just twist the back of the bulb and it comes off. there is little plastic cap that holds the bulb to the contacts, you twist it off and then change the bulb. yours may be different though.

[Ghettoguy4x4]

That little plastic cap is not removable from the bulb, the filament wires are soldered to the cap, which really sucks! Maybe I'm missing something?

[soccerbrace]

Do your tail lights work?

[Ghettoguy4x4]

Do your tail lights work?

Yeah, in fact everything else works, when I first bought it I check all the fuses, everything looks good! It hasn't worked since I've had it( about 8 months).

[soccerbrace]

Check the fuse?

[Ditchfinder]

the bulbs usually come with the plastic tab. some of the dealers stock them bring a few in. If you have no lights at all check for power and ground on that curcuit.

[Packman5280]

rock auto lists the same part number for the bulb on both our trucks, i'm surprised the bulb is soldered in. they should just pull out of the cap. bulb looks like this, you just pull it.
http://info.rockauto.com/WagnerLighting/Detail.html?194.jpg
if your fuses are good, and you can see the bulb is blown and you can't get it out of the cap, i would try the junk yard for new caps.

edit, didn't know they came with caps.

[Ghettoguy4x4]

So I got it fixed! I basically scrapped the wire that was soldered on to the caps off with a tiny flat head, put new bulbs in and re-soldered them( I don't think you have to solder them but I did for extra re-assurance)! Kinda a pain but not a big deal. Now what really sucks is i think I killed my fuel gauge lol, i had taken the 2 screws out that hold it in place on the back of the cluster before i realized I didn't need to take apart the cluster to get to the bulbs. Needless to say upon re-installation it dropped out and smacked the concrete haha! Time to go the junkyard anyway, good excuse to get away from the misses on a weekday anyway. Thanks for all the help guys! See ya.