Dash removal

[99 Protege LX]

I was trying to remove the center dash piece and am having trouble. I finally found out how to pop the thing off but i cant get it to fully pull out! What gives? Any info on this would be amazing as i hope to have it for this weekend! Thanks in advance!(hear ya)

 

[sephiroth]

I was trying to remove the center dash piece and am having trouble. I finally found out how to pop the thing off but i cant get it to fully pull out! What gives? Any info on this would be amazing as i hope to have it for this weekend! Thanks in advance!(hear ya)

you have to remove 3 HVAC metal string pulls from the HVAC controls in order to completely remove the center dash piece(they basicly look like black tubes with metal round pieces hooked onto plastic pegs on the heater/vent boxes, I'll get pictures tomorrow if you want). There's one to the right of the accelerator pedal, one directly behind the glove box, and the last one is tucked just a bit to the left of the one behind of the glove box, about 4" behind the dash, you need to push in the tab on the pegs on the HVAC units and remove the metal parts, once that's done you then need to disconnect the emergency light connector, and the HVAC controls from the center dash piece in order to completly remove it. *Make sure you remember how the metal string pullers are tucked behind the dash piece and to where they need to be* if you put it back in and it's just not going in that it means they're not in right and you need to pull it out again and re-do it. If you force it you'll bend the metal strings and it'll disrupt the controls on the unit by making it physically harder to move them (until you bend them back of course).

The metal strings are encased in plastic tubing that are basicly held in place by metal teeth tabs in 3 places on the HVAC unit, one metal tooth tab for each string, the acutal car vent string is also held on by a plastic tab that's fairly visible and is easy to get it off of, just pay attention to not break it off, because it's pretty easy to do (I've done it..)

 

[99 Protege LX]

Thanks so much Sephiroth i found the one by the gas pedal and disconnected it but there are obviously two more! Thanks alot for the info and ill be sure to take some pics with my digital camera before i take it all apart! Thanks again for the quick response!