Putting Needles Back on a Gm Gauge Cl

• #1

Alright fellas I hope this thread will serve as a good guide for anyone looking to clear or paint their needles. I decided to do this based off my nightmare of an experience when I originally decided to remove my needles to clear them after reading the stickied how-to thread on this.

Now, that stickied thread on removing and replacing needles is not clear at all exactly how the needles need to be re-installed in order for certain gauges to work properly, such as the tach, fuel, temp, oil pressure and voltage gauges...The speedometer was the only one that seemed to work alright without carefully placing the needle perfectly as it was.

Now, in the next day or two I need to remove my needles again to paint them white and I just want to be clear on the best method for replacing these so that they are accurate as possible. Now, the how-to thread makes it seem as though it's okay to remove the cluster and needles, and then place the needles back where they were before re installing the cluster and all will be well. I've found that even if you place the needles exactly where they were before installing the cluster, they will obviously deviate away from those position once you raise and move the cluster to place it back into the dash...THE ONLY way I was able to get them to read accurate was with the cluster bolted into the dash with the plastic lens cover off and THE TRUCK RUNNING....With it like this THEN I was able to separately place each needle where it needed to be and it would stay...Now if I tried it how the original thread instructions said my gas gauge would jump to full and then go all the way point south? Same type thing with the temperature.

I've made this thread to see what some of your experiences have been with correctly re-installing your needles. Has anyone found a way to do it other than cluster in, truck running, glass off, and then replace each needle to where you marked them??? I've heard some conflicting replies from fellas who basically said they just put the needles where they were suppose to go, installed the cluster, and all was well, but I don't see how that can be true because they obviously the needles will not stay once you pick the cluster up and move it in the dash to bolt in...Again, I'll be doing this in the next day or two and I want to be perfectly clear on the BEST method for doing this...If anyone was able to do it different than the way I did, please let me know it's interesting to me...Again my cluster is a 1995 TBI 350 cluster so I don't know if there's a difference in how the CPU handles needles between TBI and the 96-99 vortec clusters but I figure this thread would come in VERY handy to anyone who has been put in the position I was. Noone could answer the correct way to do it, yet we had a how-to thread that wasn't clear at all either....

• #2

this is my thinking on this subject,#1 get a set of needles from local junkyard clear'em paint'em done #2 disassemble gauges remove clear face plug back in run truck till your at operating temp take picture where needles are at running#3 shut down remove stock needles start truck and place needles in place with what the picture shows you should be right on the money with them

• #5

this is my thinking on this subject,#1 get a set of needles from local junkyard clear'em paint'em done #2 disassemble gauges remove clear face plug back in run truck till your at operating temp take picture where needles are at running#3 shut down remove stock needles start truck and place needles in place with what the picture shows you should be right on the money with them

Right this is the only way I was able to do it. JDyates I believe your tach may be off because you didn't have the truck running when you placed them back on...but I agree I wish there was something I could hook up to the truck to read my precise RPM, voltage, etc. and then place my needles

• #7

I do the same thing with the lense off, but I use a live data scanner to set them including the speedo. I can make them more accurate than they were new that way.

• #8

hmm this is a good write up but I think there will conflicting in this also since there is a few types of clusters they maybe diff. Ive got the 92? -94 clsuter I did all mine with the truck off and all my stuff is dead on. My tach and speedo zero'd back out and I had marked the rest of the placements when I took them off. Maybe I got lucky or its because its a diff style then your

Explain exactly what you did though did you place them in while the cluster was already mounted the the glass off though?

I do the same thing with the lense off, but I use a live data scanner to set them including the speedo. I can make them more accurate than they were new that way.

Dang you is there any way I can do something like that but with my 95 TBI 350???

• #9

Yeah that is what my truck was 95 TBI, all you need is an obd1 live data scanner.

Putting Needles Back on a Gm Gauge Cl

Source: https://www.gmt400.com/threads/correct-way-to-remove-cluster-needles-and-re-install-them.6279/