Gauge disassembly ?

[87coupe]

Does anyone know how the needles on the factory VDO gauges are mounted? Are they just pressed on?
Pictures for reference:




Thanks,

[Kroggers]

From memory I think they are pressed on, but a lot of people have broken them trying to get them off.... But I am sure there are others here with more experience that can advice more )

[cgarr]

Yes pressed on, what are you going to do? set it at half full, thats one way to beat the high gas prices

[Early_S_Man]

There are needle removal tools available ... try calling this supplier:

http://www.bmpdesign.com/catalog/modern/BMP_Instrumentation.pdf

[Mysterytrain]

interesting pictures! So it appears that the face is screwed to a metal backing plate? Not to hijack the thread but can you post more pics of the guts..I'm thinking in terms of a better light solution.

[cnielsen]

a fork and some carefully delivered force works well

[Huh]

For mine I just turned it all the way beyond the max speed then back to 0 and continued delicately until it came off. Just becareful. I have torn mine apart about 1/2 dozen times in a week. It is old hat for me. The nice thing is the dial is magnetic vs. spring loaded so you can get it very close to what your speedo read before you removed it. Just make sure to mark it before removal or if you know at certain rpms where your speed needle is then you can put it back together without crimping the edges and make small adjustments until you get to where you want it to be.

[87coupe]

Thanks for the info all. I'm dissasembling the gauge to experiment with creating backlit faces.

Cheers,

[Mysterytrain]

good man! I love this exploratory stuff.