Speedometer problem

[93STLTH]

I installed some lighted gauge faces the other day and I went to drive the car today and my speedometer is wayyy off now. It doesn't move at all until about 25-30 mph and seems about 20 mph off on the slow side at highway speeds. The odometer and trip odometer still seem to be working right. I checked the needle and it isn't catching on the new gauge face, so that's not causing it. The tach is fine though. Any ideas?

[GTOJOE]

You need to pull the needle off then go for a drive with a GPS. Drive in a nice straight line and try to sit as close to 60 as possible and push the needle back on. I had some new dials made up and had to do the same thing. You will find your tach is prob off now as well. I had to guess at first then when I could connect the laptop and check the exact revs I corrected it. The needle does not stay in the correct place when removed. The needle stop pin is there to stop it roating too far back.

[93STLTH]

Really? Damn, that seems tricky to do while driving. The needle doesn't seem to want to come off very easily, but the gas gauge needle did come off with just a pull. I had to reset it after filling the tank to be sure it was reading right.

[GTOJOE]

It is a little tricky. That's why it's best to do it on an empty straight road [maybe even get a mate to hold the wheel straight while you put the needle on]. Do you new faces have a stop needle? cus that could cause a problem if it doesn't stop properly each time.

[93STLTH]

They go over the original gauge faces, so the stop needles are still there. I'll give it a try tomorrow and see if I can fix it. Thanks for the recommendation!

[Hans@GZP]

Or take it to a local dyno. They can record you speed and revs in a safe environment so they can be reset.

[GTOX]

I put my speedo needle on pointing to 0 mph while idling, then went for a drive and checked it's accuracy against my GPS. Took about 3 attempts to get it spot on. Worked for me and much safer.

For tacho, just slap it on around 750/800RPM during warm idle.

[GTOX]

It's funny you mention the gas gauge needle. I have taken my cluster off MANY times and never had a problem with the fuel gauge. I've even filled up my car with fuel and moved the needle to the full position everytime i've needed to calibrate it, always worked fine. Now, since the last time I removed and reinstalled the cluster, the fuel gauge sits WAY past full, it doesn't even move down with fuel consumption and if I move the needle it goes right back up. Even swapped in a spare gauge into the cluster for the same result. Any ideas?

/hijack

[GTOJOE]

I put my speedo needle on pointing to 0 mph while idling, then went for a drive and checked it's accuracy against my GPS. Took about 3 attempts to get it spot on. Worked for me and much safer.

For tacho, just slap it on around 750/800RPM during warm idle.

Mine is within 20rpm of what the laptop says :p As far as it being safe it's fine unless your a complete moron and try it on a busy road :shake2:


It's funny you mention the gas gauge needle. I have taken my cluster off MANY times and never had a problem with the fuel gauge. I've even filled up my car with fuel and moved the needle to the full position everytime i've needed to calibrate it, always worked fine. Now, since the last time I removed and reinstalled the cluster, the fuel gauge sits WAY past full, it doesn't even move down with fuel consumption and if I move the needle it goes right back up. Even swapped in a spare gauge into the cluster for the same result. Any ideas?

/hijack

Does the needle eventually start moving? Have you tried pulling the needle off and resetting it? if it still does it then I would suspect the sender unit in the tank is faulty.

[Alan92RTTT]

I had to do all the reset after putting in my gauge faces. Getting the speedo right was a pain.

RPM was easy as I could do that while standing still and read from the AFC. Gas I did different that many have. Rather than setting based on a full tank, I set based on when the low fuel light came on.

For speed I paced lori in her car. She set cruise I just maintained position. My cruise does not work so that was the best way I could do it.

[GTOJOE]

For my fuel I just marked it before I pulled the needle off. Just put a small knick in the plastics inline with the needle in a spot that was not visible. Once the new face was swapped I lined it up with the mark and pushed it on.

Here's the dials I had made up anyway.

http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm289/1STGENGTO/IMAG0016Medium.jpg

http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm289/1STGENGTO/IMAG0015Medium.jpg

http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm289/1STGENGTO/IMAG0014Medium.jpg

http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm289/1STGENGTO/GTOspeedo.jpg

Old speedo face :p

http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm289/1STGENGTO/DSCF0819Medium.jpg

[Jimvr4]

I used my AVC-R readout to set the speed.

[93STLTH]

Thanks guys, it worked! I took it out on the freeway (there are no deserted roads in SoCal :) ) and waited till there was no traffic around me, got my speed to 60, per my gps, and got the needle on the right place on the second try.

[GTOJOE]

Sweet glad it worked. Pics of you dials?

[93STLTH]

I'll try and get some when it gets dark. I'm detailing the car today to get ready for the NG.

[93STLTH]

So, while I had the gauges apart, I installed the carbon fiber trim around the gauge bezel...

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e65/unquiltom/RT%20conversion%20finished/007-1.jpg

Here's the lit up gauges...

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e65/unquiltom/RT%20conversion%20finished/009-1.jpg

Close up on the speedo...

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e65/unquiltom/RT%20conversion%20finished/010-1.jpg

[GTOJOE]

Looks good... just missing the last 20mph :p

[ictponder]

How do you reset the gas gauge short of unplugging it? I'm having similar problems with it only going to half full and stopping after taking apart the cluster and must have accidentally moved the needle.

[93STLTH]

I went and filled the tank, then just pulled the needle off and popped it back on at "F".

[Jimvr4]

I went and filled the tank, then just pulled the needle off and popped it back on at "F".

If I remember mine had to be a little above the "F" mark so that it would read E when empty. Of course you have the light for that too but it bugged me to have it reading well above E when the light came on.

[Toni]

An easy way to set them both without having to go on the highway is to push the needle on where zero should be. If you notice zero is really further down the scale. Set it, then bend the needle over the needle stop. Better yet, before you remove the needle, pull it over the stop and see where it actually sits, find a reference to rememebr that location or take a picture then put it back in the same spot and bend the needle back over the stop. I haven't broken one yet doing this...

[wc711]

My tach stopped working so I got a good donor, same year from 92 3000 GT, they took the tach from the donor a made a simple swap. Tach now works fine but my speedo needle has dropped about 1/4" below the zero hash mark. I got on the inter-state and there was a speed indicator showing 70mph, and I was showing exactly 65. Just then another vehicle began slowly passing me, and the speed indicator flashed to 71 so I feel this was an accurate test. My 92 gauge doesn't have a stop device so the needle just seem to drop down about the same distance as the 65 and 70 mph hash marks are apart. I can't say this happened as a result of swapping the tachometers, because I live on a 15 mph street and I always try to stay around 15 so I would have noticed it right away. I just noticed this a few days ago so I can't figure out what happened. More importantly, how do I get that needle back to zero again.