Well, I got in there for awhile last night until it started getting dark (and cold) outside, and I got the switch out and tagged the wires, using blue painters tape and numbering the wires clockwise. Bartamos, yes, that was part of the question. I wasn't sure of how the switch was connected, never having taken one completely out before. After watching a video on youtube, I heard one guy say they were on a nut, and then checking my shop manual, I saw the threads on the front of the switch and understood. I first tried spinning the old switch body, but I thought about those old, fabric wires and squelched that idea quick. I grabbed my vice grips out of my bag and clamped (lightly) onto the face of the stainless dash nut and it came off easily. That was my initial question. I asked later about how to do the job 'comfortably', remembering the back, neck and headache I got working under there last time.
justhorsnaround- yeah, that would be nice, but as Kevin said, they're screws, with flat plate keepers that have a bent tail that fits into a tiny hole behind the threaded screw hole. Not only are they tiny, but unless you've got a magnetic screwdriver head, you're screwed. Or maybe unscrewed, I should say. Also, somebody mentioned whether they use fork or ring fittings, and all of my original fittings are fork. Only the new ammeter wire I installed is a ring fitting, and I have to say it's turned out to be the real pita so far. So much that when I quit last night, I had already gone in and gotten new fork fittings for it and another wire (my old fabric dome light wire separated from it's old fitting as I took the switch out.)
The wires, although they aren't long enough to bring out and do 'easily', they are allowing the switch to hang below the bottom level of the dash, anyway. And with the delicate condition of some of those old wires, I think I'm going to just re-attach everything as-is.
It's a nice, gray, cold, breezy day out today, around 29* last time I checked, so as soon as I get done with my oats and coffee I'm getting back out there and finish this thing. My headache was pounding so hard last night, I couldn't even think straight. Even though I had plenty of light under the dash, I called it for darkness (of my mood). Today is a brand new freezing, windy, winter day though!
Some good news on another front (and another post) is that I fired it up before I got started with the switch yesterday, and it started the first time and came as close to purring as I'd heard it in a while! So, when the switch is done, it's on to taking it for a warm up drive and then it's valve adjusting time! Woo-hoo!!
