I plan to put the white-face, self-adhesive, vinyl overlays on my various gauges and have a relatively simple question:

How do you remove the tach and speedo needles without doing any damage?

At first, I thought they would just pull straight off, but after applying what I feel is enough force, they remain on the spindle.

What I did was push the stop needle in to the face (the needle that stops the actual arm from going past zero) and allow the arm to come to a rest, marked the spot on the face and body of the gauge, then popped the arm off the gauge, applied the white vinyl face and reattached the arm a few times until it once again rested on the spot I marked previous to taking the arm off.

After pushing the stop needle into the face and letting the arm come to a rest, wiggle the gauge or swing the arm a few times to make sure the arm rests in the same place each time, before marking it's final resting place.

Dave

Edited December 12, 201014 yr by Zs-ondabrain

Those pointers took a LOT of force to remove!! I actually had to use a paint can lid removing tool to generate enough force to pop the speedo pointer.

BTW, Dave, thanks for the tip on letting the speedo needle hang before removal.:classic: There was a little white dot on the face of the OEM gauge where it rested and I marked that on the backside edge.

Now, I just have to spray paint the pointers DayGlo orange (or black) before I reinstall them. White pointers don't show up too well on white gauge faces.

May want to consider putting some adhesive on there when you reinstall the needle. Maybe a tiny dot of RTV or something? You'd hate to have to tear everything down again because the needle pops off on a hot or cold day inside the gauge.

Absolutely. Depending on how "tight" they feel after being reinstalled I'll probably use a toothpick to put a dap of either cyanoacrylate (super glue) or epoxy at the joint.

BTW, the pointers look really sharp now that I've spray painted them with fluorescent orange. I'm anxious to get the gauges reassembled and see how they look but I've got to paint the insides of the "canisters" with bright white to reflect whatever color LED ends up being in them.

Edited December 13, 201014 yr by Seppi72

DO NOT put anything on the shaft or hand (pointer). It should be a friction fit. Press back on with less force than you took it off. Test by gently pulling, should be snug. There is no real touque to make it slip. I've been a watchmaker clockmaker for 30 years, if loose there are other way to make it tight.

Bonzi Lon

Lon:

I can't and won't argue with your credentials or advice. I'm just happy there's someone here who knows precision mechanicals.

It is strange, though. The speedo pointer went back on its shaft just fine and is nice and snug. However, the tach pointer is way loose on its shaft and I really don't see any reason for that unless something really tiny pulled off with the pointer during removal and got lost on my workbench.

The tach's "movement" seems to be A-OK, however.

So, what would you recommend I do to "snug up" the fit of the pointer on its shaft?

I'm with Lonny, after the white face overlays, I just nicely pressed the needles back on and they were snug and have never fallen off. I gave them a tug to be sure.

Bob, My tach needle was also loose after reinstalling so I nicely pulled it back off and gave the shaft a small squeeze with my plyers, which ovaled and roughed up the shaft, the needle went back on more snug and worry free.

JM2CW

Dave

To tighten it up, very gently squeeze the hole on the hand. It won't take much. To keep from crushing the tube, place a small needle in the hole then gently squeeze.

Dave, your method will work also.

A little saying in school can also apply to other things we work on. "Make the part fit the machine, don't make the machine fit the part."

Bonzi Lon

Sand off the original white markings from the gauge face before you apply the white face decal. I did one of the small gauges and had only cleaned the gauge face and was still able to see the original markings thru the decal. Long story, but I used 280 gauge decals on 260 gauges and the markings aren't in quite the same positions.

For the needles I bought some of the Testor's model enamel paint (comes in the little tiny bottles) and used a brush. It dries to a nice smooth glossy finish.

Does anyone have the original file for the overlays?   I'm interested in putting some on, but with some different lettering and a small graphic.

 

I'd like to make up a set in black and white.

Does anyone have the original file for the overlays?   I'm interested in putting some on, but with some different lettering and a small graphic.

 

I'd like to make up a set in black and white.

 

Is this the file your looking for TomoHawk?

S30_gauge_templates.zip