Start the disassembly of the cluster by simply pressing the tabs on the plastic covers, which gives you first entry into the gauges. Be careful as the tabs can be very brittle and sometimes break. The back cover will be removed the same way and this will expose both sides of the gauge’s internals.
An important step for do-it-yourselfers that may not change the gauge face is to gently rotate the stock needles around counter clockwise until they stop. Using some type of low-adhesion/easy-lift masking tape, mark where the needle stops for a reference when you go to reinstall the original needles. This way the gauges read correctly.
Next you will gently lift the needles off of the stepper motor shaft. The stepper motors are soldered onto the printed circuit board with four tiny tabs or stems. Removing the solder will allow the motor to pull off of the PCB. If you are doing this yourself the job is made easier with a solder suction bulb to remove the original solder quickly once it is molten. Then you simply reinstall the new part and solder to the panel. The small back lighting bulbs can be a bit trickier as they will solder to the front side of the panel instead of extending through the panel from front to back. Cleaning with flux and potting the panel posts a little before installing the light fixture will help with reinstallation.
One other repair that was made was related to some solder joints that typically crack with the aging gauge cluster. Searching over the entire panel Eric was able to pinpoint a crack or two on our cluster. These take great care as well as a steady hand to repair but it can be done.