help with rpm needle

[isaac_b]

i painted my gauge cluster and what not but i messed up my rpm needle so its 500rpm short. if im at 1500 it shows 1000 or less and when im stopped it drops to 0 some times. anyone know how to fix this

[Infinitiguy19]

Sounds like the tachometer is dead or needs to be re-aligned.

[isaac_b]

I fixed it. Just had to be really careful and you can pull the needle off

[Mr.Coupe]

Did you remove the needles from the gauge panel or what? How exactly did you go about painting the gauges to give us a better understanding of what could have gone wrong.

Ricky C.

[isaac_b]

I hit the needle by accident and it moved down below zero.

i fixed it guys. so I took off the needle and put it back on facing the right of the brightness control then moved it counter clockwise until it was back in the right place

Modified by isaac_b at 10:00 PM 2/20/2010
Modified by isaac_b at 10:02 PM 2/20/2010

[ja105ny]

how did you take the needle off? when i painted mine i did the same thing

[isaac_b]

well you need to have it plugged in so you can start your car and make sure you move it back to the right place. take off everything so your looking at the two screws to take off the gauge cluster from the dash. leave those on instead of taking it out just push down the clips on the bottom so you can pull off the cover to expose the needles and all. then grab the needle at the base on the circular part i did it with my index finger and thumb. and pretty much i just pulled it off but you have to go slow. the metal bar that it is on is really thin. its not glued or anything. its hard to explain but i guess you can say i stuck my fingers under the needle as far as i could and pried it off. kinda like if you put your thumb and index finger together and pull them in towards your palm. i just did that on the needle and it came right off. i can take pictures tomorrow to try and help explain. when you put it back on make sure you push it on far enough so when you spin the needle it moves the bar under it. if not the needle will just spin on it freely and not make any adjustments.

hope this helps

[ja105ny]

yea pics would help. i tried to take off the needle but wasnt sure how much pressure to put on it and didnt want to break anything.

[isaac_b]

hey i went to take pictures but i really didnt know how to show it. i just pulled the circular part at the base of the needle and it will lift. i had to pull kinda hard. im not sure if this can go wrong so you might want to wait to see if anyone else knows another way.