Hi Jerry, I just did this on my 68 when I pulled and refurbished my cluster....which was a real cluster by the way. If I recall, I had to position the left bank of switches to an left angle to get the wires to clear and yes it was a tight fit. Try pulling any extra available slack on the harness first, get the binnacle in position and loosely tighten the rear mounting nuts, get the switches mounted then plug in and install the cluster. Gently pull the slack from behind on the loom while you push from the front, (don't go too far) Tighten down the binnacle and cluster, double check to make sure gauges are working, tach wire is on, bulbs are all lit and call it job done.
2005 BEFORE
2012 AFTER