It's not *that* dangerous to push the VF down, just do it with a constant, firm pressure on both sides of the top.

After trying unsuccessfully two previous times (months ago) to do this, I finally gathered up my courage and did what Hugo said -- and it worked perfectly.

The first two times I didn't know how hard to press, and was afraid to press hard enough to do any good. This time I applied "...a constant firm pressure on both sides of the top" until my thumbs actually hurt quite a lot and the top of the VFD made quite noticeable impressions in them -- and the VFD just moved smoothly downwards as the mounting pins sort of "bent at the knees" where they make a right angle bend coming out of the circuit board.

The difference in-car is wonderful -- now instead of losing all of the first letter and part of the next three, I only lose a bit off the top of the first letter.

tanstaafl.