ALFAGTV6.COM

Hey all,
My '84 GTV 2.0 needles were looking VERY second hand, the previous owner had snapped the speedo one and had glued it back together but it had a rather serious bend in it. Also the tacho one was a lot shorter than it should have been plus was covered in what looked like white out!!

Anyway since the temp was in the mid 30's today i didn't feel like doing any engine work so I re-furbished my needles instead I simply cut off the locating lugs off the backside of the needle, pried the needle off and replaced it with some U-channel styrene plastic. I am quite happy with the results as they look as good as new (ok i know they are not triangular in profile like the originals but the look a lot better than the ones that were on it) before and after pics below.

Before:



After:

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Nice job Simon!
I was able to bend my tach needle back - but I know it's just a matter of time before it warps back and freezes at 4500 again, as it has done so twice.

Are the original needles molded to the small round circle base or are they glued on from the factory?

If they were glued on did you just pop them free with something like an X-acto knife or did you file them down?

Thanks!

Gregory

Thanks Gregg,
The needles are actually a three piece assembly, the actual needle (white bit), the black circle which has a grove in it where the needle goes and a metal counterweight inside the black bit. The needle has two pegs which stick through the black bit (one also goes through the counterweight) and they have the ends squashed to keep them from falling off. All i did was carefully cut off the squashed bits, pop the needle off and glue the new ones on with super glue (also remember to put the metal weight back on the right side) and bingo, nice new needles.
Hope that helps

I had to glue mine after a sad attemt at straightening it....

Toothpicks, preferably flat plastic ones. Wooden work too, you just have to paint them (I used WhiteOut). Affix with a dab of whatever clear-drying glue is handy. Elmer's works fine in my experience.
I tried various scrap plastic bits and they actually seemed too heavy, so much so that the weight affected the accuracy of the gauge. According to my GPS, the toothpick solution is 99% accurate at any speed over 20 mph or so.
One neat side effect of using toothpicks is you can cut them to whatever length you desire. Because the bezel with the numbers is actually a bit higher than the spindle for the needle, the needle can be cut long so that it appears to "connect" with the number by passing beneath the bezel.

This item is actually in the wrong category. It should be under the electrical stuff..anyhow, the toothpicks treatment works well. The timber doesn't bend or warp. It's light not to affect accuracy and really easy to install. Just trim off the white pointer at the edge of the black cicrle. Finely sand back the top of the origial pointer. Make a tootpick pointer by trimming it to indicate from the edge of the numbers. Super glue the tootpick directly onto the original trimmed pointer. Be sure to paint the pointer first and yes I use white out too. Just dont paint the underside so the glue has something to bite into.