how to take gauge needles off of a 2g

[morbid_eclipse]

hey everyone...maybe this one has been answered already...i havent really seen it on here yet...how do you remove the needles from your gauge clusters? I read firebreathers sound domain site but i dont quite understand what he says when he says "hop" the needle....so has anyone in a 2g removed their needles? can you please help me. I want to take them off so i can remove the paint then repaint the bottom of them....thanx in advance...also i want to change the lights to blue(the light of the needle) so if anyone has any links on how tos for that or actually any ideas on where to put the led's in the back of the gauges or drill a hole in the gauges and put the led through there....thanx again

 

[silvercoupe97]

To remove the needles..use a fork and carefully pry it up. You can actually pry up until the needle moves up and then you can pull it up with your hand.

 

[a_scobel]

Yes use a fork..when he says 'hop' the needle, he means just hop it over the little stopper at 0 mph, & let it fall so the needle sits at 6 o'clock. Then take it off. I can only imagine how that looks to other people..seeing somebody working on their car with a fork.

For all the gauges, just be really precise when marking where they were sitting when you took them off. For the RPMs, I marked where the needle was at idle right when I start the car..for the mph, I just drove with the cluster apart on an empty road really slow..kept hitting the cruise control button until it turned on. It comes on at 20 mph. Boost gauge, I didn't care about..don't use it anyways. Engine temp & oil pressure, I let the car warm up to operating temp & marked them. Gas I messed up a bit on..my tank is now empty when it's on the 1/4 left mark, so I'd suggest marking that a little more accurately than I did mine.

I went with the Intelliglo needle kit from www.importintelligence.com. A lot easier than wiring in your own LEDs & drilling in the back of your cluster, etc (Although with this kit, you have to drill a hole somewhere in your cluster, to route the wires through..I just wittled one out with a knife though). If you have the money, I'd recommend it. If you decide to go the do-it-yourself route though, this thread might help you out. Read the whole thing.

 

[Defiant]

The kit I'd put on didn't require needle removal.

 

[morbid_eclipse]

so i should use a fork or just hop it over? and how exactly did you mark it? and defiant...what kit out there enables you not to take off the needles? thats the one i would want to go with...i dont want to go through the hassle of recalibrating it or risk severly messing anything up...thanx for everyones help

 

[dave99gst]

i just pulled them straight up -- nuttin to it.

get pixs when the project is done !

 

[morbid_eclipse]

hey dave...did you have any problem recalibrating them or did it throw them off in any way? or did you just pull them straight up and then set them down? did you have to put them down in a certain position or something? or just anywhere and it would fix itself?

 

[a_scobel]

so i should use a fork or just hop it over? and how exactly did you mark it? and defiant...what kit out there enables you not to take off the needles? thats the one i would want to go with...i dont want to go through the hassle of recalibrating it or risk severly messing anything up...thanx for everyones help

To mark it, I put a piece of masking tape in the area I was going to mark, & just marked on that exactly where the needle point was. I used a fork to actually pull it up..hopping it over the stopper was because I didn't want to risk damaging the spring or whatever it is that winds the needle up.

 

[morbid_eclipse]

To mark it, I put a piece of masking tape in the area I was going to mark, & just marked on that exactly where the needle point was. I used a fork to actually pull it up..hopping it over the stopper was because I didn't want to risk damaging the spring or whatever it is that winds the needle up.

oh ok....so you just hopped it over the stopper (counter clockwise) and then used the masking tape to mark the spot it stops at and then after it was marked you pulled it up with a fork?

 

[a_scobel]

oh ok....so you just hopped it over the stopper (counter clockwise) and then used the masking tape to mark the spot it stops at and then after it was marked you pulled it up with a fork?

Er no. For the speed & tachometer, I hopped them over, & pulled them off. No marking. Do you have cruise control?

 

[dave99gst]

hey dave...did you have any problem recalibrating them or did it throw them off in any way? or did you just pull them straight up and then set them down? did you have to put them down in a certain position or something? or just anywhere and it would fix itself?

i recalibrated them with a datalogger

 

[morbid_eclipse]

could you please tell me where i can get a datalogger and what the general price for one is? thanx dave

 

[dave99gst]

www.obd-2.com just to name 1 place.
you could acualy borrow a obd2 scan tool from your local autoparts store
(they loan them here for free )
if thats all you want to use it for.
the cost is like $100-$200 to buy one. ( for a laptop )

 

[morbid_eclipse]

yeah thats basically all i would need it for is to recalibrate it...just in case i get one from a local parts store here....what are the steps that you took to recalibrate your gauges? for example did you set them beforehand and then just call back up the settings or how did you do it? thanx for the advice

 

[silvercoupe97]

OK bud, do this...
take the clear plastic cover off the cluster (this will have to be done after you remove the cluster out from the car obviously). After you remove the clear plastic cover off, put the cluster back in the car so that you can turn on the car, doing this will put all your needles where they need to be. Mark it by putting tape by the tip of the needle and then mark the tape with a pen. You can also just take a picture of where everything is located with a digicam. Once you've marked everything. Take out the cluster again and proceed in removing the necessary needles...not all of them need to be taken out. Now once you've got the overlays on the cluster lightly place the removed needles onto their respective places. Put it back in the car (still with clear cover off) turn on the car...now your needles should move into their places. The needles that were removed can now be aligned by lightly pulling up the needles and aligning them to the marked positions and the ones not removed, well that's obvious. Now take the cluster out again and put it all back together. If you did this correctly you should not have to worry about misaligned needles.

Seriously, this is not hard at all. This thread really shouldn't have gone this far.