Help fixing gauge needles

[McCorkle]

fuq_A_vtec

Have you taken out the leds behind the needles. That will eliminate that bright glare from the hole.

[Kelly]

i just glued the needle on the gauge face this weekend i always have a full tank now.

[jnorion]

OK, I tried to solder the needles back on tonight, didn't really work out. There were a couple of problems.

1) The metal rod won't pull out from the back of the needle. I don't know how it's attached, but I grabbed it with pliers and pulled as hard as I could, and got nowhere.

2) The rod is small enough that I'm having trouble getting the solder to stick to the end of it, instead of just staying on the sides where it does no good.

After about five tries I finally got enough solder in the right place to keep the needle from falling out of the cluster, but when I plugged it back in to test it, it still wouldn't move, and it came off again when I poked at it. I need to come up with some way to get the solder to stick the two halves of the rod back together, but not have a lot of excess on the sides.

[jnorion]

Brian, you were asking about where I broke the needle... here's a picture of what's left.

[blue LEDz]

you should be able to pull that metal part out of the plastic needle. but in the process, you might bend or break it further if you've got a vise, put the metal part in it, then use 2 butter knives to pull up on both sides of the plastic needle. that's how i get them out of the guages without breaking them, so it should work
as for soldering them, that's going to be a bitch. you'll probably have to get a tiny amount of solder on each end, then carefully heat up both pieces close to each other and push them together. to test if they turn, super glue a toothpick on the end, before you go through the hassle of actually putting on the plastic needle, and possibly breaking the solder joint.

[jnorion]

I think your needles were just made weird or something... aren't you basically the only one who's managed to take them off? I had a good grip on the metal part with pliers, and was pulling on the other part by hand. All I managed to do was break the glue joint between the clear plastic of the needle and the black plastic housing that goes on top (easily fixed with glue, but still annoying). The metal is in way too securely.

And yes, soldering is definitely a bitch. I can't get the iron to the metal that's still attached to the cluster. My only chance on that is to drip some solder onto it and then stick the needle to it and hope I don't wiggle it too much in the process.

[blue LEDz]

that's why you need the 2 butter knives to pry up on the clear part the metal is stuck in their pretty tight, but as long as you've got what little bit is sticking out in a vise, you can pry the plastic off with the butter knives it's aready broken, don't be scared to put some pressure on it, as long as it's even, and straight up most people break their needles cause they try to pry on the black top part, and not from the bottom center with the knives. there is no glue or anything holding the metal into the needle, so it will pop out.

[jnorion]

OK cool. I already broke the clear part off the black part anyway and it glues back on with krazy glue very nicely. Here goes nothing...

[jnorion]

Well I failed miserably. I managed to pull one of the rods out the way you described but it's hell to get the solder on it... I tried for almost an hour before I gave up. I'll try again some other day.

The other rod wouldn't come out no matter how hard I tried, and eventually I broke it again in the visegrips. I haven't given up entirely yet, but I won't be done any time too soon.