Use pliers on the "shaft" of the levers, not the knob, when you are pulling with the pliers, brace your pulling hand so that when they come free (suddenly!) the amount of movement is limited. Otherwise there is a risk of the lever pulling out suddenly and catching on the face plate - and cracking the face plate. If you look through the slots you can see how the knobs have to be moved up or down to get out through face plate slot.

A little bit of grease on the sliders will make re-insertion and subsequent removal a bit easier. 

Notice that some of the rubber knobs have raised dots on them, I suppose it is to ID them by feel. 

Some pics etc in this post:

http://shufti.wordpress.com/2011/11/24/vanagon-heater-control-lights/

good luck!

alistair

On 2013-03-04, at 11:57 AM, WILLIAM WITZ wrote:

> Hi all I have an 84 westy. I was wondering if you can pull the plastic knobs on
> the air/ heat levers in order to remove the plate. I have some new leds for my
> burnt out lights. Thanks in advance.
> Bill 84 westy -Tiico