Help restoring gauges! removing needles?

[Chuck78]

The barebones economy model GS400X has the coolest looking of all GS gauges for the classic look I want. I've been looking for a set to swap onto my 77 GS750, as I will be glad to ditch the ugly stock big hunkin' plastic monster gauge housing for a more classy vintage look and slightly smaller gauges with less bulky appearance (and slight weight savings as well).

I snatched up the only set I could find at a killer deal, but they were in rough shape. The rusting and pitted chrome buffed out so-so (may buff more and clearcoat it to prevent any future rust starting again), but the faces are rough with fading and oxidation, so I uncrimped the back of the bezel rim to dismantle them. I may scan and photoshop a custom but authentic looking 130mph speedometer (reposition needle lower but keep same spacing, adding one more 10mph increment on both the low and high end), and remake the tach but with a 10,000rpm redline. I may try screen printed faces, but vinyl face decals will be easier. My other option is to trim 1/8" radius off of my slightly larger GS750 gauge faces to fit the smaller pods (use GS750 speedo mechanicals) & drill out the 750 tach face for the GS400X tach face indicator lights (half the reason I so badly wanted these gauges, the light tubes are built into the gauge pod base). I just won't have the lights' descriptive lettering that was on the original GS400X tach if I use the 750 faces - color coding for the jeweled lenses are pretty universal though - blue = high beam, amber= turn signals, green = neutral, red= low oil pressure. I may add a red oil pressure LED light if I can make it look like the original jeweled indicator lights.

Anyhow, I tried the fork trick to try to remove the needle, and even with PB Blaster, no luck. Maybe this is only for the later orange plastic needles? Anyone have any advice on removing them?

[Chuck78]

The fork trick was taking a lot of force and no results, help me before I break this thing! I only gave $15 for the whole cluster, looking pretty weathered and ragged, but these are HARD to find!

[Agemax]

i think that is the only way to remove the needles, by gently prying them off. if the fork doesn't work try and find something else that could do the job. just be careful........

[Agemax]

The fork trick was taking a lot of force and no results, help me before I break this thing! I only gave $15 for the whole cluster, looking pretty weathered and ragged, but these are HARD to find!

the way you are doing it there is trying to prise the needle off at an angle to the shaft. you need to wedge something under the fork at the rear so when you lever on it , it lifts the needle off at a more vertical angle......if that makes any sense.......

[rustybronco]

Look in my penelope thread. In it you would find two levers I made to remove clock hands. The object is the rest them on the screws and lever off the hands.

I would look and post a link right now but I'm posting this on my phone. I'll look for it a bit later.

[rustybronco]

You'll see a picture of the levers in post #131. Note the curved portion at the end of each lever. They're made that way specifically to be able the pivot on the 'fulcrum' point.

Link... http://thegsresources.com/_forum/sho...&postcount=131

[Chuck78]

I was looking at maybe tracking down a 10000 rpm redline tach face ( that is typically accompanied by 85 MPH speedometer) but I was wondering if the faces were all the same color, or if the 1st gen faces were more of a dark brown face (or are many just sun-faded?) and the 80's gauges more of a black face??? Wasnt sure if I could mix & match my 140mph speedo with a 350/300/400/425/550 tach with a higher redline?????

I'm also hoping that my slightly larger diameter 1977 GS750 speedometer face's guts will be a direct swap into the GS400X pods, despite the 400's gauges being 1/4" smaller diameter approximately. I guess I'll have to dismantle the set on my bike to find out unless anyone can tip me off

[rustybronco]

I can only speak towards the gauge face colors on the 1978-79 GS1000's and the 1980 and 1982 GS850G's. They were all brown in colour.

[Chuck78]

Several options for adding an oil indicator light:

http://vc****e.com/panel_lens.php





What in the world... Every time I enter that URL in the reply box, it bleeps out the middle of it?
EDIT - Oh...I just went to type only the missing characters and realized that if removed from the rest of the name, they spell a private part of the female anatomy... Sexual censorship at it's most inconvenient. http://vc****e.com - VCC Lite is the name of the company.

[Chuck78]

Progress!

I GOT THE NEEDLES OFF!!! Wow, that took a lot of force... I sprayed silicone lube all over the gauge, as that is sort of like armorall protectant on the old paint on the face, and then drizzled some PB Blaster on the needle to shaft joint while holding them in the air face down to let gravity soak it in where it needed to go. Then I got the fork ALL THE WAY under the needle so that the tip of the fork was beyond the edge of the pod. Then I had more leverage on the utensil end so I was able to put a lot of force into pulling directly vertical from the shaft. POP they went, each flying 6 feet across the room.... throw a clear plastic bag over this for visibility and containment. The 1980's plastic needles, if fit on this tight, could present quite a challenge to not crack or destroy. The older white needles are metal. I was surprised at how stout the needle shaft and the pressed sheetmetal needles were, but still, be careful.

[cowboyup3371]

I'm sure glad to hear of your success, congratulations. I broke the first set I had when trying to do the exact same thing

[Chuck78]

More progress!

I got the faces cleaned up a little and loaded into my scanner at maximum resolution and image size and did several scans. Mine are sort of pitted with oxidation and faded, but using the free open source GIMP Image Editor software (almost as good as photoshop and fairly similar). I've been touching up all the fuzzy areas and converting from 110 to 130mph speedo a little at a time using layers, cut/paste, rotate layer, etc. Here is the progress so far. I had considered just sticking my 140mph GS750 speedo into it, but then I'd have to not only use a flatbed belt/disc sander table to reduce the face size by 1/8" all around, but then I'd have to match the new tach face paint or decal background exactly to the dark brown color. I may just go black or dark dark brown (has sort of an antique vibe to it vs black).

My friend does commercial screen printing, so I may experiment with doing the faces as the factory did, but I also may just try to find a non-glossy UV resistant vinyl decal (FedExKinkos?) and epoxy the edges where the bezel covers them at the backlight illumination gap area to prevent peeling. The only problem with a decal is that the metal is crimped at a slight angle inwards at the odometer openings to stiffen it, which means slitting the decal to conform to the contour, and maybe very carefully applying epoxy uniformly to the edges there as well for long term adhesion. The faces are aluminum sheet, maybe 24 gauge?

Here's the in-progress image. I haven't rotated the new bottom end digits after cutting, pasting, and rotating the increment lines in, and as you can see, i have TWO 20mph increments, and it jumps from 110 to 130. I am only able to commit 15-30 minutes at a time to this at present due to a busy schedule. This is a severely downsized image to save GSR server space, but I can email anyone interested a massive file that is double my computer monitor size per gauge face if you ask. One other member here is doing the exact same thing to some GS400 gauges to swap onto his 70's GS750, and tipped me off that I could also search for an oil indicator lamp lens sourced from Lionel O-scale model train parts. So far the ones above are the best fit and closest to the same size. I may go for a very bright permanent LED mounted in some fabbed up piece inside of the pod as opposed to the bulb tunnels in the current tach pod.

[posplayr]

Nice effort, you have two 20 mph graduations

[Chuck78]

Yeah its still in progress as stated, still some fuzzies to clean up and sharpen, and I need to shift all of the numbers one spot counterclockwise, as they are in the original 110mph speedo format. I have two 20mph increments and no 120. 2 hours in GIMP Editor and I'll have them all chopped and relocated.

[Chuck78]

Just deleted the old preview and uploaded a new progress preview after an hour of work. I got all the numbers rearranged and rotated properly on the speedo, and I copied and pasted the neutral indicator light hole and font and pasted where the Suzuki "S" logo was on the speedo, have to paste a second "L" from neutral to turn into an "I" and shrink down a zero from the "x1000 rpm" to be an "O" the same size as the L, and there will be my oil light! The tripodometer drum is large, so the fact that the indicator lenses I have been seeing are maybe 1mm smaller than the originals will definitely help me out. I may have to jog the light tunnel or LED holder a slight bit to clear the radius of the tripodometer drum.

Fun project, but I really should be focusing on lacing my new front wheel setup, carb rebuilds, and twinpot brake conversion using custom adapters and re-working the stock Kawasaki Tokico brackets... This gauge project may take a little while to complete, but I am very excited about it - finally getting the gauge look I wanted, and it will look like it was intended for the bike, especially being OEM Suzuki parts!