martin_csr wrote:
They should come out without disconnecting wires. If they are hard like mine were, it took two small screw drivers to gently pry them out.
The 750K meters should be the same as my 650-CSR. If the rubber was nice n soft, then it would be easy to change the bulbs. But the socket rubber is probably going to be hard & difficult to remove, so changing the bulbs with the meters off the motorcycle will probably be the easiest thing to do. Pulling out those 30+ yr old sockets was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do on my csr. doh.
You were right. The socket looks like it had thick rubber shrink-wrapped around the bulb to hold it in place. It was the consistency of saddle leather left out in the desert sun for a year (see last pic).
It was no "push in and turn counter-clockwisetp remove" as the manual showed but just straight push down which was a relief. All the rubber was hard/dry rotted but hopefully will hold together after reinstall. Just want my meter lights to work, not do a concours restoration
Had to cut away some of it to extract the bulb as there is no way a new bulb could be fitted w/ that old non--pliable boot rubber on there. Only took away enough to get the job done. Left the rubber around the housing where it pushes into the meter to get a tight fit.
Did the tacho side this time. Had to go slow as my model was a one year model w/o a specific service manual dedicated to it, only a supplemental covering other items. You can see how the back of my meters are flat in the back instead of pointed like in the manual pics above Going to see how that works before doing the speedo side.
It was quite difficult getting the bulb holders out of the meter housing as I wasn't sure if they were screw-in and didn't want to break them. After managing to move them side to side a bit, I determined they were not screw in so I wrangled them straight out which was not easy as the rubber is from 1983
Will turn the key on tonight to see if they work. If that didn't do it then I'll just leave it alone as that it would mean it was part of the wiring harness and I really like this model BUT its a one-off year model and many parts are not available anyway such as the carburetor air inlet boots to name just one.
Had to disconnect the bulb and move to the side to access meter housing nuts: