centre console removal

[vonbeck]

i noticed the other night that the front half of the diff lock jobbie was not lit, how do you get to this, i undid the nut under the rear ashtray and the bolt under the blank flap at the front but it wont slide out due to the hand brake being too wide, or does it lift up from above ,dont want to try this just in case it doesnt! any help would be wonderful

[S2 Ant]

From what ive seen from others, that cover on the handbrake lifts off first to allow access, however, mine is so firmly in place im not sure if something else holds this on before you remove it or not.
I couldnt shift mine with quite a bit of force so i opted to leave it.
I know others like Jamo have had these off totally, so they will be able to answer.

[Jas11n]

No need to remove the console. Just slip a thin blade under the sides of the switch and "carefuly" start to extract it from the top. Mine worked this way.
You'll need a soldering iron to replace the blown bulbs in the difflock switch.

If you still want to know how to remove handbrake cover for future ref, shout up as it's quite hard to explain in words and there's a knack to doing it, and I'll post a pic from the manual (not haynes, lol)

Jas

[vonbeck]

will try with a`blade` now where`s me machette yeh got it out but looks a bit fidlley and me fingers are dropping off but now i know how to get it orff! cheers everybody peeps