Vannin' Home Forums Chevy How to.... 71-95 G Series Dash FAQ

Figured while I'm playing around with dashes, I'd start a thread going over a lot of the frequently asked questions, or things that I feel like might be useful in the future to some folks.

Just for a beginners reference, here is the backside view of a 1975 Beauville dash so you can see the common placement of parts for the early 70s models. I know they moved the ignition switch to the steering column at some point, but not exactly sure when, as my 82 has a column switch.



The first one is a question I've been asked numerous times over the years on 67+ trucks and vans, and they're both the same. I'm sure the trucks changed sometime in the late 80's or early 90's, but I'm almost certain my 91 G10 was the same. How to remove the headlight switch knob. To remove that pesky knob, you have to reach around behind the dash and feel for a spring loaded button.

It's usually facing away from the instrument cluster toward the driver's door, but could be in other locations I guess in different years. Once you've found the magic button, you simply push the knob in a little, pull it out a little, and shake it all about as you're pushing on the spring loaded button at the same time until you feel that button depress all the way in, then you can slide the headlight knob and shaft out of position and remove the switch.

In this pic you would be looking at the rear of the dash from the engine compartment side.



After you've removed the knob and shaft from the switch, you should have a 5/8 nut holding the switch to the dash. Simply remove the nut from the front, and pull the switch out the back.



For anyone that might have rear A/C, that knob just pulls off and you should have a 5/8 nut holding the switch in place as well. You should be able to just pull the switch out the rear after taking the nut off, but since this donor dash was melted, I couldn't tell if there were once plastic tabs there or not.



I'll see what other things I can discuss about the dash here in a couple days when the weather permits me to go out and get more pictures and ideas.

Yep, I had an 89 Blazer, back around 1995 I spent a bit of time trying to figure out how to remove the switch, finally drove over to the local garage and the mechanic told me how to get it out in a matter of a couple minutes. Nowadays I always do a search of youtube to see if I can find a how-to video for disassembly and repair when working on vehicles.

Same here on the YouTube, or grab a trusty Chilton, but I try to only work on stuff I'm familiar with if I can help it now.

I've been asked about wiper motor location a few times.
Sometimes guys just don't wanna believe it's not outside....

`

I'm pretty sure that's still on the front clip I have out there. That would be a good how to that I can add to this thread. Thanks for the tip.

Just do a write-up on how to do a heater core replacement on a G van.
That'll cover almost everything up front.


I wrote notes and took pictures when I did mine in order to do a write-up, but once I realized that the job is somewhat different throughout the run, I didn't think it would be as helpful as I originally thought.

I'll see what I can come up with.

Dude! I was joking.

I know, but it does get asked a lot, so maybe I can add something to the post to address it.

Too bad we can't easily figure out what all the differences are...
We could do a complete dash tear down that covers all the G vans.

Glad someone is feeling Frisky!

Hmm, Chevy Van Dash disassembly!
Or, chasing leaks under a Mobile over at the Kennel. 30 degrees, 24 is the WC. Let's see...

Maybe after breakfast 😋

So I often thought the truck and van columns were very similar since I've heard of hot rodders for many years using tilt columns out of trucks and vans in there muscle cars and hot rods, but I wondered just how similar they were. Finally had two to compare and they look identical to me.

The black column on the top is out of a 1975 G20 (Beauville 3/4 ton) van. The multi-colored column on the bottom is out of a 1968 K10 3 on the tree truck. Aside from the shift linkages being different, every single thing I compared was identical. I didn't spend all day comparing, but unless I'm missing something really small, they were the same length, diameter, and had all the same mechanical innards (aside from shift linkage). Both are non-tilt, and I know they changed the turn signal stalks as my 1982 G10 has a more modern style signal lever. I'm going to see if I can find a decent column in the junkyard this spring to convert my van to the earlier style signal switch and lever.

One other thing I wanted to mention, and I'll go into way more steering column detail someday when I can make an entirely dedicated post to it, but the upper and lower bearings even looked the exact same as the 67-72 column bearings. The steering wheel out of the 75 Beauville even looked identical to a 1969-72 C series truck.

Great info, one nice thing I found owning older Chevy's is there seems to be about a 25 year span where a lot of parts could be interchanged.

Yes sir, and it feels like every time I look at the van parts I see similarity to the 67-72 C and K series trucks.

I added a some more info and a couple more pics to the first post in this thread, so you might want to go back and re-read the first post if you have already read it.

Lost Keys? Ignition Switch gone Bad? Just trying to "borrow" you're buddies van for a minute? I'll show you how quick and easy you can get the key tumbler out and replace that switch... or start the van with a screwdriver... whichever you prefer.

There is a small hole in the face of your key tumbler that you can place a paperclip (or spring in my case) into, with your keys in the switch, then turn your key one click counter clockwise past the off position and the tumbler should pull or fall right out the front.





At this point with the tumbler removed, there is a slot in the switch that is really handy for a flathead screwdriver.




The next part you need to remove is the locking ring on the outside of the switch. Big chrome one. I'm sure they make specialty tools for removing these, and a nice set of snap ring pliers should do the trick as well, but I always use a crappy small flathead screwdriver and hammer. Just position the screwdriver in one of the notches and keep tapping it with the hammer in a counter clockwise rotation until the ring falls off. Then you can remove the ignition switch from the back of the dash.





Also I checked on the Autozone website as I thought they looked exactly the same (I have a few in my parts stash from my old trucks) the 67-72 C10 trucks use the same dash switch (Duralast Part# LS411) so if you're in a junkyard looking for one and come across one of those trucks with a key in the switch you should be good to use it.

Bonus picture for today, here is a shot of this style wiper switch which should have two screws holding it in, but obviously some previous owner has lost one.

Did a little more disassembly on the "roasted marshmallow" dash we snatched out of the parts van, and the plastic cover for the doghouse on the QAR since most of it was shot.

To start with, we'll remove the glove box and the stash tray door at the top. To remove the stash door, there are two "button pins" for a lack of a better name. They need to be pushed through from the back side, but good luck with the 40 year old plastic not cracking. The best way I've found to do this is get the blade of a flathead screwdriver sideways through the slots of the 4 prong socket thingy the pins push through. The just gently work the pins through.




What the button pin doohickeys looks like when they are removed (two on the right) and the socket part that they push through (one on the left).



For the glove box, the bottom is attached via two of the same style pins that are in the stash box door. I pulled one out, pushed the glove box into the doghouse area (through the backside), and the other pin slid out easy letting the door be removed from the backside. For the latch, I could go through a long write up, but honestly this fellow has a video on YouTube for the 73-87 "Squarebody" Chevy trucks which are the same latch mechanism and his video is very informative.



For the A/C vents in the dash, the one on the driver side was already removed so I'm assuming it was just held in from the backside with screws. On the passenger side vent, the airbox had a few screws holding it in. Once the airbox is out of the way you can remove the vent with two screws. If you have an emblem like the Beauville, the trim should be held on with speed nuts, and the emblem is held to the trim with flat spring nuts or whatever they're called. Check the pics, they speak for themselves.

So I got all the parts pulled off the donor front clip I had and took some more pics for the dash FAQs. Hope these help.

This front clip was 71-76, but I'm not certain exactly what year. I'll update if it's still in the yard when I go back, but I'm assuming later 70s as the dash changed from the early design and looks the same as my 82.



The first thing I will mention is that the upper dash defroster vents near the windshield are the same as the 67-72 C and K series trucks. I think the only color they currently offer is black or chrome for those which is a huge bummer as I would love some red ones. I could be wrong on the colors though. Apparently these are right and left hand specific as well due to the angle of the downspout. So be careful of that if you're ordering some.




Another question I've seen a hundred times on Facebook was "How to I remove my wiper motor". Well the motor is located under the dash a little left of center. To start with on the outside, you'll need to remove the wiper cowl, then you should see the motor's splined shaft and actuating arms. To remove your regular wiper arms that the blades attach to, you need to gently pry them upward off of the splined shafts, unless you have the style with the release tabs that need to be depressed while pulling them off. Here is what the wiper motor shaft and actuator arms look like under the wiper cowl.



Next, with all of the dash and gauges, brackets, heater hoses, etc out of your way it's easy to get to the 3 1/4" bolts holding the motor in. If all that stuff is in the way, it can still be done, but it's going to be a huge pain. I would suggest removing the nut that holds the wiper actuator arms to the motor on the outside under the cowl first while the motor is held in place, then do the three 1/4" bolts holding the motor to the firewall or else the thing will be flopping all over the place while trying to remove that nut on the outside.

In this pic you can see the wiper motor in the upper right. Two of the 1/4" bolts are visible in this pic, and the other is hidden to the bottom right.



Once all the bolts are removed you can remove the vacuum lines for the windshield washers, then you can remove the wiper motor and windshield washer pump assembly as a whole.

Bonus tip on how to remove the windshield washer squirters from your cowl area. The backside has a 1/2" nut and the front side has two flat spots that will accept a 5/16" open end wrench. Just loosen them up, pop the vacuum lines, and pull the squirters through being careful not to loose the nut and washer off the backside into the wiper cowl abyss.



A lot of folks seem to be very intimidated with wiring and electronics, so I won't spend much time on them here, but if you want to remove your wiring harness and fuse box, it's pretty easy with a little patience. There are only two bolts (1/4" if I recall correctly) that hold the fuse box to the firewall. One is top left, hidden under the top signal flasher can, the other bolt should be bottom right. Once all the wires are disconnected everywhere it's as simple as removing those two bolts and pulling it all out from the cabin side. It helps to have someone to fish the wiring through to you in the cabin, and you might need to use a small pry bar to free the fuse box from the firewall as they stick it down with sealant well to keep it from letting water into the cab as well as to protect the fuse box from water damage.

This pic you can see the fuse box located behind all the pedal assemblies, ducting, bracing, etc.



The square hole in the center of this pic is where the wiring goes through the firewall and shows diagonal bolt hole locations.



And that's all, this is what all that wiring mess looks like laying on your dirty shop floor.



I'll try to add some more info to the thread tomorrow. Not sure if anyone is reading along at this point, but hopefully some of this mess helps someone out down the line.

I'll go ahead and touch on a few more things. I'd like to do some gauge cluster rebuilds whenever I can get my hands on some, and maybe even a steering column, but until then hopefully some of this mess will help some folks out there.

These are shots with the dash removed. It's a disaster of dirt, cobwebs, insulation, brackets, wiring, and junk under there; but you can see the two braces that run from the doghouse area to the kick panels. Things like the e-brake assembly and the brake pedal assembly are bolted to these structural braces to help strengthen everything up. I found that once you remove those two braces, it's much easier to get at the things like pedal assemblies, heater box, and all the other goodies you might need to get at under there.




So the first thing I'll go into removing is the brake assembly. The brake pedal has a contact switch that works when you depress the pedal. The switch mounts so that when you press the pedal, the switch plunger releases and makes the brake lights turn on. Remove the switch and you can move on to the rest of the pedal assembly. You can see the white cylindrical switch mounted to the pedal assembly above, but I'll try to get a close up from my 82 when I get a chance.

The brake pedal itself is held into the mounting bracket with a pivot pin. There is a spring clip on the passenger side of that pivot pin. You can usually just get a flat blade screwdriver under the clip and gently pry it off. Then push the pin through to the driver side of the assembly being careful not to loose the two pin sleeves on each side of the assembly. You can see the clip in this pic.



Once you've removed the pivot pin, the pedal itself should drop down, allowing you to remove another clip that holds it to the rod that actuates your power booster or master cylinder if you don't have a booster assembly.

Next you can remove four nuts that hold the brake assembly bracket to the master cylinder or booster if you have one. The bolts will go through the firewall. Then there are two more bolts at the top of the assembly that hold it to the firewall. Once all the bolts and nuts are removed you can remove the assembly. It takes some wiggling and twisting sometimes, but be careful if you decide to strike the studs with a hammer as you can mushroom the head of the studs and ruin the threads.



The e-brake is essentially the same procedure, except it's not connected to a rod that goes through the firewall, but instead it is connected to a cable that operates your emergency brakes.



The heater box is pretty straightforward to remove. You simply have to remove the two heater hoses from the heater core on the firewall side. Then there are a handful of small bolts (1/4" if I'm remembering correctly) around the box and ductwork. Remove the ducting first, it will save you a bunch of frustration when removing the box. Then you just gently lean the box into the cabin and pull upward being careful not to bend your heater core tubes or damage the fins (if you're reusing it).

One of the heater control cables goes to the blend door in the heater box. I didn't photograph this process, but can edit this thread when I do the one in my van eventually. That one is held onto the heater box with the end of the cable coiled into a spring like shape and slid down over the blend door shaft.

One area a LOT of folks neglect is the crotch coolers or kick panel vents. Over the years all of the debris that makes it past your wiper cowl and into the cowl vent area eventually works its way down to the kick panel as that is where the kick panel vents draw air from when you open them up. Here you can see the typical pile of nastiness that makes it into the wiper cowl area.



And here is the driver side kick panel vent. The vent itself is just a plastic trim ring with 1/4" sheetmetal style screws holding it into the kick panel. Then the flap is held into that trim ring with a vertical shaft. The flap in this 75 Beauville was made of metal, but had some foam around the edge that was WAY overdue for being replaced. The down inside the hole you can see the pile of leaves, pine needles, etc that like to work their way down there and hold moisture. This is a common spot of metal rot on the 67-72 C & K series trucks, so I'm sure it would be a problem area in the vans that a lot of people overlook as well.

If you don't want to disassemble all of this stuff at least stick a vacuum hose down in the kick vents and vacuum them out on occasion.




Bonus tip for today. This little floor mounted high/low beam switch for the headlights is exactly the same in the 67-72 trucks and has caused me more electrical gremlin headaches than any other part. Since it's mounted on the floor it tends to collect dirt, mud, moisture, and all sorts of mess. Then it will cause all sorts of random electrical problems with your lights and other components. I've spent hours trying to diagnose weird electrical issues, only to swap this thing out eventually and solve all my issues. I always try to keep these clean and replace them when they look worn or funky just as a cheap piece of mind.

Im impressed ... thats a LOT of work to refurbish/rebuild a vehicle and your doing it so systematically.

Don't be too impressed. All of this just to strip down a front clip that I'm eventually using the fenders and hood from for a bar or desk build. LMAO!

I am keeping some of the parts and refurbishing them for spares for my van, and selling other parts that I won't be able to use. I have always enjoyed doing how-to techs and helping people fix their stuff. I know vanning is on the rise again at the moment, but it's still a struggling auto sub-culture compared to its heyday. So any way I can pitch in to keep some life in the party I will gladly do.

I'll keep adding to this thread as I get new parts to refurbish or disassemble.

Well then I take back my "like" .... lol

Thanks for sharing this kursed.
I didn't give much thought to the kick panel vent/cowl vent system but a cleanout is now high on the priority list

You're welcome. Glad it helped. I thought when I started writing this up it might not help anyone, but if it could even help one person that would be enough justification for doing it.

Yeah, I'm guilty of leaving the old crotch coolers uncleaned when I was younger. I'd let my trucks sit under the trees all fall and winter, then crack those things open on a spring drive only to get a face full of leaf debris.

The first time a friend of mine had his C10 stripped to the frame, I got a good look at the rot on the outside of the kick panel area that's typically hidden by the fender. He explained to me that a lot of C10s got like that because of the junk left in there from the wiper cowl. I started cleaning mine religiously after that.

On my mid-Dodge, I took off the cowl and undercoated that whole area and went in through the air vent doors on the inside of the van and had that undercoated also. Every few years I refresh the whole area with chain saw bar oil. All that debris gets in there over the years and plugs up the weep holes or water drain holes, leading to the area always be damp and causing rust.

Not sure how the Chevy vans are, but on my Dodge I can remove the sunvisor's inside the van above the driver and passenger compartment's and I take a coat hanger with a rag attached to it coated with chainsaw bar oil and run it into the windshield pillars and toward the center of the windshield area and also through the air vent doors I can run the oil coated hanger upward into the pillars. I seen the pillars on many vans rust out to the point where when the door was opened, the rotted pillar pulled away from the windshield.

Indeed, the trucks do the same thing and yes you can get into those areas the same on Chevys.

Not going to lie, when I read your first post I got through "Every few years I refresh the whole area with chain saw" and winced in horror thinking "WTF is this dude refreshing with a chainsaw!?!?!!"

I hadn't heard of using the bar oil before, I will sometimes spray a little penetrating oil in there and other hard to reach places just for the extra bit of rust protection. I'll give the bar oil, coat hanger, cloth trick a try sometime.

I did a similar thing on my Chevy. However the original owner had the van Ziebarted and there isn't a spot of rust in the pillars, rockers, and door bottoms.

I would LOVE to have the Queen Anne's Revenge done by Z when I get her done, but I'm scared to ask what it would cost. Has to be way up there.

Since not having owned an older GM car in a lot of years, I was going down the expressway at 85 MPH when I rediscovered what that little pull handle was, that was located on the kick panel. Asked the wife if there was one on her side, and we pulled on them almost at the exact same time. I wish I had that moment on video, as the years of debri blew right onto our feet

HA! I've been there before. Was driving my 68 K10 pickup a couple years back and opened everything up as it was getting hot, looked like someone opened up a leaf mulcher bag in the interior. Got so much crap in my eyes I had to pull over and rinse them out with my water bottle.

Every time I turn on the blower in my van, I hear "crunch-a, munch-a" from leaves. Every so often a bit of leaf blows onto the passenger side floor. One of these days I'll pull the blower motor and clean out the plenum.