yea i think we are talking about two different things. heres a pic of what im talking about. how the hell do i remove this part.

 

if you still havnt gotten that cluster out, yes, you do need to remove every bit of plastic from the steering coloumn. on my 73, i just had to push that two ends together and then the whole thing just kinda popped off...mabeye a 70 is a bit different.