The original dash controls can not be read so i purchased a better looking control panel/box. how does it come out?

Haynes says I need to take out the tank!!

Is there any easy way to do this?

No.

You have to pull the tank, you simply can't get to all of the the clips and nuts which secure the belden cables where they terminate up behind the tank. I just finished this project, and let me just say that there was a whole lot more involved than I expected.

Here's a picture to give you an idea what you're up against. You can see where the cables pass through from the cabin (red circle). The green lines show the clips that hold the cable housings in place. The red lines are showing the nuts which hold the actual cables in place. You've got to loosen the nuts and remove the clips on all of the cables in order to pull them back through from the cabin. And then you've got to be able to feed the new ones through and hook everything back up. You *might* be able to see all of the cable ends without pulling the tank, but trust me, you can't get a wrench on them with it in there.

This picture only shows one of the flapper boxes, there are two more you need to consider as well.

Good time to clean and seal your gas tank, clean the area under the tank (make sure to tell us what kind of tools and other goodies you find down there), possibly replace soft fuel lines with stainless ones, etc.

Good luck!

Click to view attachment

remove the stereo
remove the nut on the rear of the heater control unit.
Pull it out slightly.
remove the cable attachment screws and watch for the nuts to fall.
remove the cables from the retainers.

install is the reverse of removal.

RIch

The cables themselves attach to the heater control arms. This is why when you order new controls the cables come attached. I guess you could try to remove the nice new cables that come attached to your new part and try to hook up the old ones. For me, that wasn't an attractive option with such a nice, new, expensive part.

Click to view attachment