Taking off the dash to check wiring-Do I need to remove steering wheel.

[spiderman1]

Sorry for 1000 questions-
Just new to a lot of this. I am trying to run down a wiring problem and feel like i need to get behind the dash to be sure of a few things. Can anyone give me the step by step on this? I have removed the two phillips head stews and the end brackets as well as the two hex nuts underneath the dash. The dash is loose but doesn't seem to want to slide past the steering wheel.Do I need to remove the steering wheel or steering column? If I need to remove the steering column it looks like there are 3 regular bolts and some kind of round bolt on the bottom left of the steering column.
Thanks for all the help and advice.

David

[DieselSpider]

Most of the dash wiring you can check from underneath, opening/removing the center console or simply removing the wooden panels and glove box liner. You can drop the steering wheel and disconnect the speedometer cable if you need to completely remove the instrument cluster. Make sure you disconnect the battery if you remove the fuse box or ignition switch as both are live off the battery cable connected to the starter.

[707kevin]

Easiest to get the steering wheel out of the way if you plan on spending time on wiring.

Sure, you "can" get to most wiring under the dash, but we all know how these cars seem to get hacked up. Best to pull the dash (super simple) and check it all out, clean it all up, remove the junk you don't want/need. Check & clean all of the connectors. Maybe do and LED upgrade while you have the gauges out?

[wizard124]

Did you remove the nut accessed through the top of the glove box?

I replaced my dash. I dropped the steering wheel/column but didn't need to remove them. Just 2 bolts to remove.

[toplessexpat]

Whenever I've worked on the behind dash wiring, I've normally removed the steering wheel (makes getting the gauge cluster out easier, and sitting there is more pleasant on leg room when fiddling about), removed the four thumb bolts, the wiper and rheostat rings, and out it all comes. Sometimes the central console too - that's two Phillips head screws in trim rings on each side of it, which fix it to the tunnel. Hardest thing there is gently putting everything back, especially when there's radio wiring and a modern (i.e. Deep) head unit. Second hardest thing is not cursing too loudly when you forget to reconnect the antenna and it all has to come out again!

[spiderman1]

Thanks for all the input I have been working on floor pans and will try this soon