68 Dart damaged instrument cluster circuit board

Another way around this is to NOT use the pins. Buy a couple (or one big one) such as Molex style connector, which are available from several electronics suppliers. Scrape, clean and solder pigtail wires to the board direct to the traces and run those to the Molex connector(s) and replace your harness connector with "same."

Another couple things you should do while you have the board out
1...Replace or at least clean the bulbs, and clean the sockets and board traces. Bend the socket contacts if necessary for better contact
2..Solder jumpers from the board traces to the IVR contacts. These often lose good connection
3...Loosen/ tighten the gauge stud nuts several times to "scrub" the connection clean
4...If you still have the original type electro-mechanical IVR consider getting a solid state one such as RTE

You should not be having all that much trouble getting the cluster in/ out. Most of us drop the column down which for me was a huge aid. Be sure to first disconnect the battery Disconnect the speedo if you can, work it "down" as if hinging it down and out and towards you. Disconnect the ammeter wires and unplug the connectors and it should slide right out with the face sort of downwards