427_Roadster

Hey All,
Can anyone tell me how to pull the speedometer needle of the gauge? I need to unscrew the face from the odometer housing to do some work. Does it just pry up or is there a screw in there somewhere?
Thanks...
-Tom

ddecart

It just pulls straight off. Carefully and maybe with a little wiggle. Grab VERY close to the center.

Dave

daily_driver

woah hold up!!!

dont take it off!! youll break it for sure!!

rotate the front face and youll be able to unscrew the housing screws through the "bright" holes in the speedo face....

dont take the needle off at all...

you can then dissasemble the entire unit.

:cheers:

427_Roadster

12 Hours too late!!! :mad :cuss :mad :cuss :jester
Snapped the shaft in half using almost no pressure to pull it off. Another way to do it would have been to hold the shaft with needlenose pliers and twist the needle hub. Came off nice and easy that way(after it was already broke!)
Turns out I needed a new assembly anyway, the gears for the odometer were just about ground away to nothing. Got a guy in PA ( http://www.contemporarycorvette.com/ ) UPSing me one this morning.
Just to complete the night, I also managed to crack the inside of my dashpad.
Found out I'm able to curse in 4 languages I've never studied.
:cheers:
-Tom

Wrencher

It's only cracked in one place? Wow! Bubba tried to pull mine without lowering the column, and it was prety much just held together with the material :mad . I glassed it back together temporarily (and managed to bend my speedo needle!) until I get a new one. My odometer is also garbage, showing 84,000 miles. Maybe this is why all vettes are low miles :D

Hans

ddecart

How do you do that? You can't separate the back/mechanical portion of the speedo from the faceplate to do anything to it with the needle in place.

Mine took a little bit of wiggling and some pulling and came right off.

Dave

80Matt

Sorry to hear you broke your needle! I just changed my speedo from the EPA 85mph model to a 140 mph speedo faceplate.

For future reference.... Lower the steering column, remove the speedo cable from the rear of the speedometer. Take the speedometer out. The needle should come off easily. Rotate it towards zero, then pull out. BE SURE TO PULL ON THE MIDDLE, BLACK, CENTER, ROUND PART- NOT ON THE WHITE NEEDLE PORTION. The black part is metal, the white part is plastic.

Hope this helps someone.

daily_driver

it doesnt separate COMPLETELY

but it does separate enough for complete dissasembly and ability to change ALL gears!!! (even the odometer gear in the very bottom.)

sorry i didnt respond sooner.... but havent checked forum for a while....

:cheers:

gearheadz

daily_driver....I just posted for help w/my odometer & then I saw this post. Is the odometer problem remedied by just replacing the gears or do I need something more? Also thanks for the heads up on the speedo needle removal.

Mark

British Mark

I had to repair my speedo with new gears, I was advised to warm the metal part of the speedo needle with a souldering iron and it pulled off easy !
Mark.......

daily_driver

if your speedo works and your odometer doesnt, then id put my money on a broken black plastic gear in the bottom of the speedo (i think the originals were brass?? dunno) but its all the way in the bottom of the speedo.. if you follow my method of dissasebly, its a bit tricky, but you can replace that gear.

you can order the odometer gear from corvette central for 9.99

its black nylon..... (it will probably break again!!!)

hahahaha

:lol: :lol:

daily_driver

ill see if i can find my spare speedometer in the closet later tonight and ill post a pic from my digital camera so u can see which gear im talking about....

:)

gearheadz

Thanks for the help.

Mark

daily_driver

in this pic you can see a partially dissasembled speedo (the # wheels removed...) this is my spare parts speedo...and yup! i broke off the needle on it :lol: ...... you can see the long white gear... that is 1 of the odometer gears that might be worn....



here you see the cylindrical can removed (2 1/4 inch screws holding it on...)....my bottom gear was broken so it isnt there for you to see it, however when u remove the cylindrical can then youll see a long black gear (or ive heard brass also??) that drives the white gear... this is most likely your problem.... it usually snaps in two or is worn. the gear goes where i have painted in the picture (although it goes under the center spinning thingie)

gearheadz

daily_driver....I've annotated your image for discussion purposes.

I was able to remove the housing by removing the 2 screws at 2 & 8 o'clock. But how do you remove the drum from the rotor to expose the worm gear? I don't see any screws on the outside of the drum.

PS...I tried to heat the bottom of the needle where it attaches to the speedo shaft as suggested by British Mark but it wouldn't budge.

This is getting ridiculous. I'm a pretty capable gearhead but this thing has got me stumped.



Mark

daily_driver

the rotor and drum are not connected in any way.,....

the needle does seat down a bit in the rotor (the needle shaft rather....)

once you undo the (2) 1/4 inch screws holding the cap to the drum, then the cap of the drum and the drum should pull out a bit to the top peice of the housing...

ddecart

That is on pesky gear. On my '69 it was originally a broze or some other soft metal gear and it got stripped out. The whole face of the gear was cupped. Replaced it with the Corvette Central gear ($7 shipping and 2 weeks to MAIL the thing across the state! :rolleyes:) Replaced it and now my odo works perfectly.

While we're on the topic though, does anyone know about calibrating the speedo? My odo reads perfect but the speedo is a good 25-30% low. :confused:

Dave

gearheadz

Hmmmm...the cap comes off but the drum stays. I even put a screwdriver in the gap between the back of the speedo and the drum to see if it would pry forward. No luck. It must be fused to the needle shaft. Thats why I was stumped 'cause I assumed since it didn't move, it was attached to the rotor.

Thanks for all your help.

Mark

daily_driver

hahahha...

well good luck with it!!!

on both the speedos i took apart the drum did not stick...

my guess is your needle is really stuck/rusted into the rotor center...


the drum is connected to the cap of the drum by a coil spring....

the rotor turns creating a "something" effect (okay i forget the name.... :rolleyes: ) cuasing the drum to turn a bit up against the force of the coiled up spring thus cuasing your needle to register something...

the odometer gear turns becuase the shaft that the rotor connects to has a built in screw turns in it to turn the gear....(direct drive..)

so see if you can turn the drum without the rotor turning...(by hand..)

its possible you miught hand bent the drum during dissasebly??

it should just come off easily.

daily_driver

or also it could have a bit of nylon gear stuck in the drum/rotor!!!

:lol: :lol: :lol:

anythings possible!