IF your going to install white guages in your car, be very careful!
And for g-d sake, drop the stearing unit or take ur stearing wheel off. Do not attempt AT ALL to do this job without removing those 2 parts, the reason!

1. You wont be able to reach the speedo cable, unless u got baby hands. And even still its gonna be a tight squeeze, and NO you cant reach it.

2. Dont pull on anything, be gentle.

3. When you remove the needles, be EXTREMELY CAREFUL, "I" was and still it BROKE! yeah..

So before you think of installing white gauges, make sure your careful.

CHECK OUT MY FANCY GAUGES!

 

Real sorry about your gauges. I hope it isn't too painful fixing them. Good luck.

 

Yeah, I was very afraid I was going to break the needles or at least bend the pintles or something on mine. Worked out well enough though. I love the guages now though, and get compliments by anyone that gets in the car. I still couldn't believe how easy it all went seeing as how I did it from scratch including the scanning and editing of the faces.

Why would you need to reach the speedo cable BTW? I don't think I even removed the actual speedo guage, just took the face off the front to scan it unless I'm remembering incorrectly.

 

next time you do that try and take a fork and bend the legs on it to make a pry tool. It helps to evenly extract the needle.

 

Sorry to hear Dave. Another way to reach the speedo cable release tab is to get on your back and wiggle under the. Then get a 1 foot extension bar or long pole and push on the tab and pull on the speedo cable. Or if your get into tight areas you can push on the tab and pull the cluster out at the same time. If you have tilt steering you can make it go all the way down and be able to pull the gauge cluster out without droping the whole collum. I wouldnt go through the pain of pulling the steering wheel, theres just 2 12 or 14 mm nuts holding up the whole collum just take them out instead. I like BOTTLEDZr28's idea. I've always taken off the needle by pinching the circle part of the needle with my thumb and pointing finger and pulling up.

 

well thats what I ended up doing, just taking the gauges off without taking the whole unit out, but than I noticed, WOW the speedo is messed.

 

yea i was following your other post man. i see you have the canadian speedo. if you want i have a new face for it that is in american standard. but seeing as how you fubard it nevermind. it really wasnt that hard to take the cluster out. in fact ive taken my cluster out about 10-15 times so far. after the first 5 its easy. i hav enever had to drop the whole column i just tilt it all the way down.now you have no choice but to take the cluster out if u want to replace the speedo. next time to remove the needle take the cluster out and then take the speedo off and ther ewill be a black round thing that turns with th eneedle hold the needle and turn the black thing the needle should slide if not fall right off.

 

That sucks man. Those cables are a pain in the *** to reach. I could get them off, but putting them back on took some time.

 

I feel your pain brother, I did the same thing with the speedo needle. Broke it and had to go to the junk yard and buy a whole cluster for just the one needle, cost me thirty bucks. And sometimes those needles don't come off so easy as some people say they do. The ones on mine didn't and the ones on the new cluster didn't either. Took a good amount of force to get those needles off. And that speedo cable is a pain in the ace, I agree with some of the others best way i found was from underneath, use a long flat-head screw driver, press the tab on that thing that holds the cable to the speedo and pull on the cluster, works great. And i am glad you posted this, because this is stuff i wish i had known when i did mine, and the funny thing is i didn't have to take the needle off, was changing my heater core and thought i had to take the needle off to get the speedo off(needed to get the cluster out so i had enough play to move the dash enough to get to the heater core box), wish i had known not to mess with it. All i had to do was disconnect the speedo cable, but at least i will never do it again. That's a lesson i won't forget

Oh and MARK WHERE THE NEEDLE IS BEFORE YOU REMOVE IT, I didn't and took me about 7 times of removing and replacing the needle before i got it close to being accurate, had to keep asking my girlfriend, "How fast were you going back there?", it worked though. Can we say "sorry officer I think my speedometer is a little off".

 

By pushing down on the speedo cable?
pushing down on what exactly?
My speedo is just one straight metal tube looking kinda object there is nothing I can pry it off with really, and I cant even give it enough force to break off, I just dont have the room.

 

this man this little clip. you have to prss down on it to release the speedo cable.

 

where the speedo cable plugs into the guage cluster, at least on my 87 iroc and should be the same for most other guages with the exception of digigtal, there is a little metal clip, it's really strange looking. Meaning it doesn't seem like it should hold the speedo cable to the speedometer but it does, it's there right against the back of the guage cluster. You have to drop the driver side kick panel, and loosen the 2 bolts holding the steering column, but you don't have to take them all the way off. Then you should be able to see the little metal piece i am talking about. There is a part that you press on the metal (connector), that will release it and allow you to remove the guage cluster, while pressing the tab on the connector i would gently pull on the cluster( I used a long flat-head screw driver), and it should come out no problem. Then when you put it back the cable just has to be pushed against the cluster and the connector will lock back onto the back off the speedo, i just grabbed the cable where i could get a good grip and pressed the cluster back against the cable and it should clip back on. the speedo cable is pretty stiff, you'll see when you get the cluster out. And ham spiced's picture should help
Hope this is clear enough and i hope it helps, your gonna have to get your head up under the driver side dash to see what i mean. Good luck

 

i didnt have to take off my needles. I also didnt drop the colunm,,or take off the wheel. I took out the screws,,removed the dash pad,,to reach the spedo cable clip then slid them right out with a bit of patiaents it comes out easy,,,,the reason why I took them right out was so I could change my bulbs to colored ones,,,makes white face guages look 10times better

 

you know when people say "if u dont try it, u will never know"

this is why I hate doing **** my self to my car, becuase I dont want **** to break, and if someone brakes it, its there ****ing problem to fix it. And now that I ****ed this up, I gotta go to the junkyard tommorw, do the exact same **** and than do it all over agian to my car. which sucks!

 

Is there anyway to remove the speedo stuff (on the gauge it self) without taking the column out?

cuase I need a needle, and the guts of the speedo guage.

 

Sadly no, the speedo bolts onto the back of the gauge cluster. Theres also 2 wing nuts holding the cluster in too, they are on the bottom of the cluster next to the Check engine light and Fasten you saftey belts light. Theres no need to take the steering collum out, follow the shaft of the steering wheel down to under your dash and you'll find two nuts unscrew them and the collum will be outta the way. Get a long extension bar and push on the cable release tab and pull on the cable at the same time and it should come right off. Good luck tommorow Dave. I hope the day goes well for you.

 

thanks for your help

I dont understand what u guys mean by press on the tab on the speedo, there is no tap I dunno what u guys are talking about.
ill draw u a picture of what I saw

 

A. Some cables
B. just smooth metal no screw/clip
C. The cluster
D. Darkness



This is what I could see from underneeth

 

beautiful drawing and i love the vibrancy of your posts. so many stars...

um the smoth metal has a clip on it i assure you it does. it is right near the back of the cluster. i willb et you 10 bucks its there. its probably too dark for you to see but get a flash light and shine it back there. right where that smooth cable connects to the bakc of the cluster there should be somethnig round and rustly looking... thats the clip. you gotta pust that as far towards the cluster as possible to release the cable.

 

ahaha you like my post eh

 

****en **** yea i do **** it takes a ******** while to ****en under stand what the **** you are sayign but ****en **** yea i get most of that **** deciphered.

 

LOL, hamspiced
Dave get on your back and squeeze under your dash put your head up against your brake pedal. Find and follow your speedo cable wire up to the back of the gaugescluser and at the base of where the cable attaches you will feel a metal tab. Its within a 2 inch diameter of the base of the cable.

 

I went to the junkyard today in 3 feet of snow today,
found a bounch of old **** kickers that were worthless to even bother with, I found only 1 that was the dash was in decent condition so I start to go at it.. I was losing tools and **** so I didnt bother with it, plus the *** hole would of ripped me off, cuase I just grabbed the ciggy lighter and a shift **** for a grand am, the *** hole wanted $23 for it.
what a ****ing *** hole..
anyways..
no speedo for now,
but I did buy some brand new Hood latches.
The end

 

And yet another grammatically colorful post by dave!

that sucks, dont you have a nice junkyard near you that doesnt want to charge you an arm and leg(sorry for the pun)

 

If you know how the speedo unclips, it's not hard to reach up and unhook it. I have very large hands and big arms, and I was able to reach it easily. Other than having my head squished on my gas pedal, there wasn't much to it. Also, you shouldn't even need to take your needles off. If you use the Macewen overlays, or model yours in the same fashion, you can slip them right over the needles. If you do take the needles off, I'd suggest using needle nose pliers behind it, and pulling gently without completely closing the pliers.

 

how do the overlays work?

 

u have to push the metal tab in towards the cluster and at the same time pull the cable off.

 

Im gonna have to do this during spring,
becuase that junkyard sucks my *****..
im not going back up until it gets warmer, there was like 3 feet of snow, half of the camaros were 2 old of gauges that wouldent work with my speedo, and the rest u couldent get the doors open, and on top of that it was -30 deg. C out there..
and there 2 expensive..

 

Thank you for the info