I only tailgate until they move.
Then I blast past them.

 

I understand they do this for 100,000 clusters and thousands of needles, but when you are working with something as fragile as a needles and you are pulling it out of a small motor and back in there is no possible way to get it with factory precision. so maybe its just off a little from its original place in the motor and maybe i can just adjust that. but all i get from OLT is how its correct as opposed to some real advice about how to properly test it if it is off and how to adjust it.

not one post has he said "test it like so" "if results = this, fix it like so"

i just get bashed on about how i dont know what i am talking about, and gps does work the same as the speedo, and gps this, and gps that...

O.L.T. the fact remains my car and my gps app "matched" and now they dont. so regardless of gps issues and car issues and all other stuff it was matching and now it isnt. and dont tell me the speed sensor could have possibly drifted 7mph in a month. or 300 miles that i put on the car in that month.

so lets come up with a better solution, first we need a test to make sure it is really off and by how much, then we can come up with a way to fix it!

going forward please keep this post to how this issue can be fixed or if you ran into this issue how you went about testing it to make sure there is a fault.

 

I'll share what I did to get my readings accurate after doing my own LED conversion on my SC. After having my cluster apart several times (at least 10) my needles were certainly off by pretty good amounts. After getting the lighting just right and attaching the face for the last time I GENTLY pushed each of the needles PARTIALLY onto their pins, specifically putting the speedo and tach at 90 degrees above what there normal position would be assumed (3k RPM on the tach, 60 MPH on the speedo) and drove the car up and down the street briefly. Once the needles settled after shut down I used that final position to judge where they should be at rest and repositioned the needles. I did the short drive, shut down, and reset at least 5-6 times until I knew they were accurate. If you look, you'll see that at rest my speedo is actually reading 2 mph, I used that as a buffer against speeding tickets and it reads 2 MPH fast at any speed on the scale.



Check the GPS indicated speed, add 2 MPH, and that's what my speedo shows (and that was with 17" Mustang rims and tires). I did the exact same method for the tachometer using a multimeter that read RPM's. Using this method I also set my temp needle position knowing what it read fully warmed-up and the gas gauge too, although I took some of my "empty" margin away on purpose. Once you have each of the needle positions right GENTLY push the needles fully onto the pins making sure you engage the contacts for the lighting.

If your reading 7 MPH over at both 40 & 70 MPH you only need to reposition the needle.
If you are seeing an imbalance that grows with speed you may have another issue. If your speed difference is 5 MPH at 30 and 7 MPH at 60 you may either have a damaged clock-spring on the gauge or the needle balance is off. I've not run into that issue so if it's what you are experiencing I would try my method first to see if by chance it helps. If not, I have reached the limit of my expertise and can only wish you, Good Luck!

 

I have a needle that works only when it wants to, guess i should see if it is properly seated.

 

Just pulled my speedo needle and tach needle off and they only plug in one place, where the motor stops turning CCW.

 

bigwhite how do you pull the needles out, i dont want to break them. do they just pull straight out or something needs to be done?

also i think i found my problem and that is my speedometer needle is not at 0 when at rest position, it is sitting below 0 i can almost make out the line. that is why it is reading the speed wrong i am almost sure. looked at 3 other clusters today and all are right over the line covering it perfectly.

 

Is that with the key on or off? You just grasp the needle at the thick part where it pushes on to the gauge and pull straight out. The problem is that it only goes back on in one spot so your not going to change the position on the needle. It would be dependent on the gauge itself. My speedo needle that I reseated still goes off and on at will. I had it tested by Lextech and they said there is nothing wrong with it, so I must assume its the gauge.

 

They will go on in several different positions, I promise you. I removed and repositioned both my tach and speedo needles at least 4-5 times each.

As for your needle lighting I think your contacts aren't seating properly when installed. Check to make sure the brass cups are in the correct position under the pins on the needles and that you are fully seating the needle upon installation...

 

car is on stopped at a red light. below 0, car off below 0, no key below 0.

i will test after seating the needles again and getting it to where they should be and get back to you.

i did notice that the needles are sitting much higher off the face then on stock cluster, saw that today when i took it apart and compared to a stock.

 

I wish I could help you, I have a similar problem myself. And I'm with you, there's no way this can be considered A normal variance

 

So we thinking that the reworked needles are heavier than stock and thats why their reading slow? I stand by my post that my 93 SC400 needles only plug on in one placement, at the bottom of the swing of the gauge. At resting position.

 

i looked at another cluster i am working with, and yes the needles do basically plug into 1 spot because of a 3 prong system. Motor in the center and i assume the positive and negative contacts and the sides.

First off i looked at the needles they built, they are sitting atleast 1/8 to 1/4 inch. probably 1/8in off the face of the cluster. stock needles sit very close to the face, could the be causing an issue? maybe!. 2 the needles have 1 led at the base and what looks like a metal stick running to the tip. this is probably to make the weight correct, I am sure OLT can weigh in a confirm this. the base of the needles is covered in something black, probably some sort of compound to keep everything from falling out, but its so big the needle has to sit high or it would scrape the face.

in conclusion who knows why the cluster is off. maybe its not sitting right, maybe after needle install the needle got pushed down below 0. maybe my cluster fell on the floor (unlikely but who knows) all i know is its wrong plain and simple.

and i didnt say this before but my heat is also a little off. not much. before i sent it it was just past half once warm. and by just past i mean it sat below the upper mark in the middle, now it covers most of it. that doesnt really bother me. my speedo does. its off and after more driving around its off not by 5 at 50 and 6 at 60 but more like 7 at 50 and 7-8 at 60.

 

ahh yes forgot to mention, i found a post a while back about needles, you can just turn the needle it full rotation and then just a little more past the stop, this should adjust its rest position, but i will do more research before i attempt that.

 

Those contacts will move with no resistance, they are not in a fixed position in relation to the mounting pin.

 

im thinking the needle is just to heavy, there is alot of stuff at the base that they put on and a long needle running to the tip to simulate weight. but if the base is heavy it could not be rising as fast as it should causing my issue