Burned out dash lights

well I just finished looking at the instructions for tearing apart the interior of my 2003 tacoma, just to change out a burned out dash bulb. The engineers at Toyota should have their asses kicked for designing it this way. Shit, I didn't expect to spend hours tearing out my dash for this job. WTF, ever happened to KISS approach. I've owned several vehicles over the years, 60's, 70's,80's, 2000's, and I don't remember any of them being this big a pain to change one stinking bulb. The old 60's and 70's dashes from Ford and GMC were 3 or 4 phillips screws, presto instrument panel came right out, change the bulbs, presto done. I'm just pissed off, I have a screwed up back, and this will involve way to much bending and twisting and contorting for me. So I'll jus live with the burned out bulb for now. Just ranting and raving like us old men do when this newer shit doesn't make any sense.

 

You should be able to drop the drivers kick panel, remove the radio bezel, cluster surround, and have that cluster out in 20 minutes with little to no experience.. what specifically is your hang up?

 

I am not sure maybe the OP`s being crippled makes it hard to get things apart.

Then doing anything the first time is scary it looks very difficult .

Anymore it is like a muscle memory a electric screw driver makes it easier if I just had a regular one I would be cranky as well

 

Only “difficult” part I can think of is after pulling off the 3 HVAC knobs, you have to carefully pry the HVAC faceplate off which can be intimidating for sure! I’d highly recommend only doing this if it’s 70+ degrees out, for the faceplate can be brittle in cold weather.

 

What face plate ??

Mine was gone when I bought the truck

 

The part that lights up that has all the knob positions on it

 

My problem is, I'm a ten level fusion, which means S1-T8 is all screwed together, which severely limits the amount of bending and twisting I can do, which isn't much. I do all right lying flat on my back, or sitting upright, but I can't bend and twist at all at the waist without creating a shit load of pain. Sucks for me, I haven't been deer hunting, or fishing, or camping for the last 5 years. So, I'll have to recruit my brother or neighbor, to do this for me, while I assist. My one hobby, that I can still do somewhat on my own is going to the range and shooting, but even that takes up the next day for recovery. No pity parties allowed, Im still above ground. It just takes me longer to do normal shit like changing the oil, tune ups, because I have to stop from time to time and take a break. I'm going to try what Faster_n_you recommended when the weather warms up this spring. Thanks for all the reply's guys.