White face gauge boo boo

sweet93hatch · May 6, 2004

Terror strikes the heartland. I was installing my white face gauges and failed to note the original location of my needles before ripping them off. Ooops. Any suggestions??? Thanks.

sweet93hatch · May 6, 2004

bump...nudge...

_jb_ · May 6, 2004

Maybe see if you can spot a dull/scratched area where the bolt in the needle left a mark.

sweet93hatch · May 7, 2004

Nope, no marks. Any other ideas or am I just going to have to make uneducated guesses.

thompsonsd · May 7, 2004

Dude, sorry to hear that man... I really don't know a fix for that, but I can warn you about another easy to make boo boo that I made doing this.

What I did was push just a little tine bit too hard while pushing the needles back on. It's amazing how easy those tiny shafts bend... can you say "sticking gauges"? I had to go get another cluster and start over... Moral of the experience: Please be careful when doing this Mod.

sweet93hatch · May 7, 2004

Wonderful, I pushed the needles on with some good force and didn't look at where they were before I yanked them.

thompsonsd · May 7, 2004

I'd start calling the Yards... I found my replacement with about the same milage on it for $120. Looks like we both learned a lesson....

HaggardGT · May 7, 2004

Tell you what... here's your best bet. Get on the horn with Mustangs Unlimited (860-647-1965). They sell a replacement guage cluster for 87-93 Mustangs with white face guages already in them and they retail for about 200 bucks. Now, I don't know if you want to spend that kind of loot, but they come calibrated and have 2 options for top speeds - 85 or 140 I think. Plus they come with a placard that goes on your door (official for DOT purposes) that notes a discrepancy between the odometer reading and the actual mileage of the car. It comes set back to zero, and you just write the mileage at the time of the swap onto this metal placard... and you're golden. Just a thought.

patdow1 · May 7, 2004

Sorry to hear of your troubles I was gonna suggest pacing a friends car with the speedo lense off at a determined speed then replace the needles if you didn't damage the shafts during the 1st installation.
Just a helpfull hint: use the overlays as a template and trace them onto a piece of paper then make your needle recordings of all gauges on it after engine has reached normal operating conditions then replace needlles after you install your overlay according to your recordings then enjoy those white face gauges.

PonyBoy90 · May 7, 2004

Someone explain to me how marking the position on the old guages helps when reininstalling the needles on the new whitefaces.

My understanding is you need to peel off the old guageface first, clean the glue and any residue left over on the pod from the original facegauge to ensure proper adhession and illumination of the new whiteface guages.

That is, unless by marking, you mean you mark the positions on the old face guages, then pop off the needles and peel the stock face off and the new whiteface gauges are "perfectly symetrical" like the old ones and after to stick them on you just "eyeball" where the needle would be pointing had the new whitefaces been the old.

I'll keep in mind about not bending the pivots when I reinstall my needles.

Lastly, was it a struggle taking the needles off and putting them back on that caused you to bend the metal pivots???????????????? Did anyone paint their needles before reinstalling them?

Thanks

Gearbanger 101 · May 7, 2004

Ahhh, I answered this one for a guy a while back. Check out this thread and let us know how it workds out....
http://forums.stangnet.com/showthread.php?t=448974

patdow1 · May 7, 2004

I'll try to help you understand Go out to you car (optional) and look at the gauges notice that there is a little pin that your needles rest on when the car is shut down. When you change your overlays you have to remove that pin, keep in mind that there are wound up springs behind your needles which helps them to return to the pin when the car is shut down that is why you have to make a recording of the gauge needles I don't think that "eyeballin" will work, not if you want it to be accurate because once the pin is removed the needle will fall beyond the pin. You do always have the option of taking it to a professional who can re-calibrate it for you I know of only one person who has actually done this and he goes by bad91lx I believe he paid $75. Now as far as removing the stock overlays in preparation for the new ones I have no clue because I used NR Elglo gauges so I did'nt have to do that but the removal is the same. I painted my needles with plasti-kote Odds 'n' Ends fast dry enamel (Orange Glow B27) which I got at WalMart it matched perfectly with the needles on my Autometer gauges, some have chosen to use hobby paint (Testors) which you may have to mix to get the desired color.

Qwk88LX · May 7, 2004

aw man..sounds like you should just take it to your mechanic & let him figure it out..I plan on doing some white face gauges soon. Always thought that would be an easy install..now I know to be extra careful & follow the instructions to the freakin t.

sweet93hatch · May 7, 2004

Yea, I thought it would be cake too. What a pain in the freeking buttttttt. Oh well, I'll figure it out. Thanks fellas. Catch ya on the flip side.

stangbear427 · May 7, 2004

patdow1 said:
I painted my needles with plasti-kote Odds 'n' Ends fast dry enamel (Orange Glow B27) which I got at WalMart it matched perfectly with the needles on my Autometer gauges, some have chosen to use hobby paint (Testors) which you may have to mix to get the desired color.

Did you paint the whole needle so it looked like the AutoMeter needles, or just paint the bottom so it would still illuminate?

PICS!

powershift351 · May 7, 2004

I just bought aftermarket fuel, volt, oil pres, and temp guages when I did mine. You will never be able to get it in the exact same location. On top of the, the factory guages are abaou as accurate as a shotgun at 300 yards. Aftermarket is the most accurate and best way to go, then after you get all of the guages done, gears and wheel size you want, take it to a speed recal shop. Problem solved

85_SS_302_Coupe · May 7, 2004

sweet93hatch said:
Terror strikes the heartland. I was installing my white face gauges and failed to note the original location of my needles before ripping them off. Ooops. Any suggestions??? Thanks.

You ^^^^^^^^^^

I would look at someone else's gauge and just guestimate...you might even be able to use this as an excuse if you get pulled over for speeding...lol

patdow1 · May 7, 2004

stangbear427 said:
Did you paint the whole needle so it looked like the AutoMeter needles, or just paint the bottom so it would still illuminate?

PICS!

I scraped the white paint from underneath the needle and painted the top and sides so the light could come thru and light up my needles a nice orange.
I'll try to get some pics over the weekend both night and day shots.

Mustang5L5 · May 7, 2004

Um guys, haven't any of you noticed your factory gauges always reset themselves when you cycle the key?

This is how i did mine, i did not mark anything when i pulled them off.

Install the cluster with the clear plastic off and all the needles off. Cycle the key on and off three or 4 times. Make sure your car is ice cold to reset the coolant gauge down to 0.

No start with the volts. Key off, it points to 0. Lay the needle on, and cycle the key, it should kick up and then down to 0. DO it a few times til it lays on 0 when you go key off.

coolant temp. ice cold car, put it on bottom line. cycle key and it will reset no matter where you move it to.

tach, always resets to zero with the engine off. lay the needle on, start the car and shut it off. Should fall to 0

Oil pressure? always goes to 0 when you cycle the key.

gas gauge? fill it and mark full. OR run your car til it's out of gas and mark empty.

speedo? take out the pin. Look at your stock speedo gauge, notice the little tick mark UNDER 0MPH? that's the alignment tick. Point the needle to this line. Then lift it and put the pin back in place.

That should do it.

blkstangman88 · May 7, 2004

tack and speed site at 0.....warm up car to normaly running temp and place temp needle where it goes, bat. just put it in the middle or at 12 volts when the cars running, the oil guage, mine runs about 3/4 of the way up all the time, so thats a good place to start, and the gas, id say run it untill the gas light comes on then place it right above the 1/8 mark, thats when mine normaly comes on. i had the same problem and thats how i fixed it

White face gauge boo boo

sweet93hatch

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it sucks (I know) to be on the receiving end

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