With an conversion from the dummy lights to gauges, I went out and found a perfect 87 z28 cluster at the junkyard for free. I cleaned it up and tried it out in my sport coupe. The first thing I noticed was that the temperature and oil pressure gauges pegged (the senders needed to be replaced). I replaced the senders and tried it again and only this time the temperature gauge pegged. I thought to myself "What else could I be missing?"
I played around with it for a half hour and noticed that each time I crank the needles bounces from left to the right, but each time it does it and gets stuck on the metal trim. So I ran home and looked up on TGO and there was a posting about it, stating I should use rubber foam rubber so the needle can bounce back, thus not getting stuck. I ran up to Ace and couldn't find anything remotely close (everything they had was just too hard). As I was making my way to Autozone, I remembered getting some vacuum line tubes for my dad's car and I had some leftover. I had leftovers that had the very small diameter to it.
I ran home and found a piece about an inch and a half long. I split it down the middle. The curvature of the tube can grip the trim-lip edge of the gauge, so it doesn't fall off. I slipped it on and gave it another try. It worked! Just before my victory dance, I noticed it was getting stuck on the bottom from bouncing from the top. I took it off and split it in half, slipped one half at the top right side and the other at the bottom right side. Bingo-bango!
In review, find some vacuum line tubes (most can be found in any Autozone in a variety pack of 4 tubes), cut it in half, the slip one side at the top and other at the bottom. Once you have everything together, it's barely noticeable (even with the lights on). Hopefully that solves any of your problems.
Good luck!
I played around with it for a half hour and noticed that each time I crank the needles bounces from left to the right, but each time it does it and gets stuck on the metal trim. So I ran home and looked up on TGO and there was a posting about it, stating I should use rubber foam rubber so the needle can bounce back, thus not getting stuck. I ran up to Ace and couldn't find anything remotely close (everything they had was just too hard). As I was making my way to Autozone, I remembered getting some vacuum line tubes for my dad's car and I had some leftover. I had leftovers that had the very small diameter to it.
I ran home and found a piece about an inch and a half long. I split it down the middle. The curvature of the tube can grip the trim-lip edge of the gauge, so it doesn't fall off. I slipped it on and gave it another try. It worked! Just before my victory dance, I noticed it was getting stuck on the bottom from bouncing from the top. I took it off and split it in half, slipped one half at the top right side and the other at the bottom right side. Bingo-bango!
In review, find some vacuum line tubes (most can be found in any Autozone in a variety pack of 4 tubes), cut it in half, the slip one side at the top and other at the bottom. Once you have everything together, it's barely noticeable (even with the lights on). Hopefully that solves any of your problems.
Good luck!
Junior Member
I wish I would have known this before. My temp needle used to do it and I would always tap on the glass until it fell back to the left. Well one day it stuck and I tapped away. Instead of falling to the left, the needle fell all the way through to the right. I haven't had the time to take the gauges apart and fix it yet but I'll give this a shot when I do.
Quote:
Ouch!Originally Posted by CamaroLover09
I wish I would have known this before. My temp needle used to do it and I would always tap on the glass until it fell back to the left. Well one day it stuck and I tapped away. Instead of falling to the left, the needle fell all the way through to the right. I haven't had the time to take the gauges apart and fix it yet but I'll give this a shot when I do. To tell you the truth, I didn't figure this out until a couple days ago, before I hand to take the plastic lense off and keep it off to tap the needle back and forth. Well, it's good to know now, heh.
I just sanded the edge down a little with a dremel and it never got stuck again.