Can you break the gauges

If you move the needles by hand?

Doubt it, I'll pop one of mine open and see how they're built later tonight. I seem to recall them being your standard "crossed coils" analog meters though.

EDIT: if you pop the needle off and then put it back on at the wrong angle though, that's different.

I didn't remove the needles but I did move them by hand ... like the temp gauge. Seems that before I messed with it, the needle read "correctly". Afterwards, though, it seems all jacked up.

I havn't had a plastic cover over my gauges for a long time. I have moved my temp and voltage needles (from a 93 model) by hand, as well as my fuel gauge (87 model), and all of them still work fine. I have never turned them completely around. I wouldn't touch my mechanical speedo, but you won't have one of those on a 95.

My fuel gauge did crap out on me once, back while I still had the clear plastic cover, so they obviously can "just die". It cost about half a million bucks at the dealer so don't buy a new one unless you are darn sure it is broken.

The tach and odo should be perfectly fine. I think the rest are just fluid damped standard meters, I don't see why it would hurt them (didn't pop them open all the way)

I popped off the needle on my tach and it didn't work worth an F when I put it back on. I had to replace the gauge. this was on a '92.

Seems like the gauges I messed around with don't reset to normal. For example, the temp gauge goes so far left, it's like 1/2" past the first tick mark. It never did that before.

Hallo. You can play with the needle, but watch out you have a big torque.LOL
If the needle is in the left you do have a short in the sender or in the wire.
Lower resistance from the sender means higher temp.on the gauge.

Try to test the gauge with a 100 Ohms resistor, it will give 220F on the gauge. If not ,place a new sender or check the wire.

wim

Well the needle moves but it doesn't use the factory range (between the tick marks). I tried resetting the needle but it didn't work.

one of my buddies MJ gauges spins all the way around. its pretty funny

bigalpha said:

Well the needle moves but it doesn't use the factory range (between the tick marks). I tried resetting the needle but it didn't work.

Click to expand...

Don't fight the symptom, but the cause.:laugh3:

This may vary with the gauge, but I had problems with the voltmeter on my 95. I bought a gauge cluster from the junkyard, and the volts read way high. I opened it up, and found that the gauges are calibrated by a magnet that is just glued in. If the magnet comes unglued from shock or tampering, it can slip and the gauge goes out of range. It's been a few years since I looked at mine, but as I recall it was pretty easy to see when the gauge was out where the problem was, and it wasn't hard to fix with trial and error. You can experiment with magnet placement before gluing it in. It helps to use a glue that does not dry hard, and gives you the ability to move the magnet around a little after it's stuck down. I think I used Shoe Goo or something of that ilk, just a little dab, and then calibrated the gauge using a variable power supply.

I don't know how applicable this is to other years, but it's worth a look if you have a gauge that's gone way off.

Hmm, well I haven't jarred the clusters or smashed them around. Maybe I'll pull another cluster (or just the gauges) and give those a whirl.

My Temp gauge got all messed up after tearing apart my dash to run wires. I took it apart and found the plastic insulators for the screws that connect the gauge to the cluster circuit where all cracked.This made it read too low when cold and at about 260 when warmed up. I just bought an aftermarket gauge and it works fine. Btw this was on a 95