Is there a 'trick' to doing this without breaking anything?

I pulled my IP today to check the 4WD bulbs and as I was trying to twist out the IP to get access the bulb, I heard a light plastic cracking sound (never a good thing) and the cable plugging into the rear of the shift indicator area is not tight.

The indicator works fine, just worried I might have cracked or broken something, like maybe a mount for the cable at the rear of the IP, if so it seems to work OK...

Comment/suggeestions? Thanks!!

(interesting side bit -- only the 4wd part time bulb was installed, nothing in the full time spot even though I have the NV231 case -- odd so I moved it)

 

the shift indicator bulb is not hooked up to anything in these trucks, no manual trans option(unless i have the wrong idea from shift indicator)

 

my question really was about the shift indicator cable not any bulbs...thanks...

 

oo, i know what you mean, what year is your truck? is it the old style (orange indicator) or the new digital shift indicator???? this WILL make a difference

 

1998 SLT (thought it showed in the post sorry)

It's the "old style" orange not electronic...thx

 

To get my panel out, I just pull the top down forward and the cable will pivot a certain way to allow you to access the rear of it. There's 2 screws holding the whole shift needle assembly to the cluster but just for replacing bulbs you don't need to remove it.

 

I did that one day!

But it still worked so I never went looking for a problem that wasn't there. I just walked away!

It was most likely just the little white adjuster on the under side of the steering column on the left side making the noise.

Anyway, stop messing with it and put the 4PT bulb back in. Don't just remove things cause it looks different, you get in trouble that way.

 

If you have the NV231 case only the PT bulb will be installed since the case doesn't do any FT. If you have the NV242 case then both the PT and FT bulbs will be installed since it can do both. I noticed the same thing on my panel (no FT bulb installed at the factory) since mine came with the NV231 stock.