Hey, I got a question, last night on the way home my speedo wrapped all the way around and snapped off my needle. Ecklers has a replacement, but what's the best way to install it? I'm gonna get a new cable while I'm at it, too. Anybody done this yet? Any and all help will be greatly appreciated.

I shoulda taken some pictures! It's kinda weird seeing your speedo registering 150!



(Edited for spelling)

|UPDATED|11/15/2003 8:17:15 AM (AZT)|/UPDATED|

Get a good assembly and tech manual...money well spent for most anything you want to do. I have a '78 that I replaced the speedometer on, but Chevy changed the whole speedo/tach module then. For me, it was pretty much a piece of cake to replace. I'm not sure it's so easy for you. I have a '69 as well, and looking at it, it certainly doesn't look so simple to do.

Good luck.

Ok, I got it out. I used super glue and a small piece of paper clip to glue the needle back together. Now it registers 10 mph slower than actual. Too much weight addition with the paper clip! I get to do this all over again when the replacement needle comes in. I'll let y'all know how it goes.

Rather than try and fix the speedometer needle you have, Corvette Central sells just the needle for your car. Their part number is 393101. The same part for your tach and speedometer. It runs $13.95 plus shipping. It sounds like a far better way than going the superglue way.

I've already got one on order from Eckler's. Funny thing is the repair actually looks very good. You can't even tell it was ever broken. Too bad about the weight difference. I ended up blowing the fuse for the instument lights, though. One of the 26 year old bulbs disintegrated during dissassembly of the driver's dach and I completely forgot about it when I put it all back together. I'll get that fixed tomorrow after school, I can access it through the instument cluster area. One fuse and one bulb. Shouldn't take more than a couple of hours...

All in all if was a relatively easy proceedure, but you gotta be patient or you WILL break something. The speedo cable install went fine, but I gotta get me some jackstands. I'm a pretty small guy, but it's TIGHT under there! Would ya belive I even changed out the tranny filter without jacking her up? No joke, but it was a cast-iron b****! My wife jokes that if I ever go missing she just looks for my legs sticking out from under the car!

In spite of all the "little projects" I've really enjoyed this car. There's a great feeling of accomplishment from fixing things myself. If I ever win the lottery, I'm gonna go to mechanics school. Then I'll open a Vettes only shop. With a lift. And some jack stands!

Update:

Got the new needle in, it was a snap. But my speedo is still 10 mph slow. So I guess it wasn't a weight issue. Is there any way to adjust the speedo to the correct speed?

Are you sure the speedometer is actually that far off? There are different gears that fit (I don't know if it's where the speedo cable goes into the transmission or the speedometer head), that match the rear axle ratio. A different rear axle ratio requires an appropriately matching gear. This all assumes standard size tires on the car as well. If you have non-standard size tires and/or a different rear axle ratio from when the car was built, your speedometer will be off, even if you have the speedo calibrated.

I have never had the needle removed to look at one, but is it possible that the needle was installed rotated on the shaft a little? Or is it 'keyed'?

No, I got the needle lined up with zero when I put it on. I'm thinking that when it snapped the first needle, something got put out of whack.