RowerJim

Luckily enough, my wife's grandfather who gifted us the truck already had the shovel, a jack, and a few other tools behind the seat ready for us. Looks like I'll be needing to pick out a jacket. Thanks.

I have seen some others mentioning the need to remove the speedo cable. That is the one part that is still intimidating me a little bit but with all the links and step-by-steps provided, I'm going to go for it. I agree it seems like a good project to help give me the understanding of the truck and how it works. Hopefully, starting to dig in will give me some more confidence for the next project.

Alright, here is the dumb question. How do I change the bulb without tearing the whole dash apart? I took a peak underneath the steering column and up towards the gauges and just saw a solid mess of wires with nothing that looked clearly like a bulb I could just pull and replace. Is it possible to replace the bulb without having to remove the bezel and gauges? Thanks again

To Eagle and Pete, Thanks for the advice and order of operations. I'll be sure to do the preventivite maintenance and drive it around for a while to see what else might break along the way. Like JustEmpty was saying a lot of the forums right now aren't making a ton of sense purely based on the lingo. Just gotta keep reading through and hopefully start to catch on. As for the dash lights, I did read through the forums and tried out the twisting of the knob for the dimmer, as you'd expect no luck there. For now, just looking to get them working no upgrades planned immediately unless a replaced bulb takes the same work as an upgrade. As far as I can tell I already have the "nicer" dash with the tachometer, just no lights! JustEmpty, Thanks for the advice on doing the work myself. I'm going to try but then I'll just have to wonder if "I did the work right". hahaha

Just received an 86 2.5L 4x4, manual, longbed from my wife's grandfather. He used it as his daily driver and felt it was just time to pass it on. Luckily, I'm the only grandson-in-law or grandson in the family so I just picked it up from him a week ago. Overall, it is in great shape as far as I can tell, but before the wife and I take it out on some adventures I want to make sure we don't end up stranded. There have been a few issues that I have found so far namely, the lights to illuminate the gauges isn't working and some issues with a door opening and closing, but beyond that everything "seems" fine...until it isn't. Again I'm brand new to the Comanche world so please keep it light on acronyms. Hoping for some guidance on where to start. It feels a bit like trying to eat the elephant even going through the current topics in the forum. I've found a few but then it goes down a rabbit hole. Thanks everybody for your patience with a newbie.