hey i was a dummy who decided to take the needles off the gauges to paint them in my 97 caviler. Does anyone know how i can get them back where there supposed to be so the gauges register correctly. any advice will be greatly appreciated thanks guys

I've taken needles of plenty of times, and I usually do the following to put the needles on:

set the gauge cluster in the dash (don't bother puting the top pad or trim face on yet) without the lens on it.

plug it in

start the car

gently set the temperature needle on at the low position.

wait for the car to get up to temp, then put that needle on where it usually sits after the car warms up (if you have to move it at all).

put the speedo needle on gently at zero (you'll have to estimate, of course)

the gas gauge you would have to know where it was before, or you can go fill up first and then put it at full

if you have a speedo, it should be around or slightly below the 1 (1,000)

push them gently down until they are close to the face. take a drive and test the speedo, and tach if you have it, to make sure they turn freely.

if all is well, put everything back together.

I've done this plenty of times, and it's always worked fine.
Good luck!

Quote:

if you have a speedo, it should be around or slightly below the 1 (1,000)

I think you mean tach.

And I would wait for the engine to warm up so that the engine revs come down to normal. Which will be about 900 for a manual and about 600 for an auto.

Thanks a pile guys that might make it a little easier. I fures the needles could only set one waywhen i took them off but i quickly discoverd i was wrong.

SHOoff wrote:

quiklilcav wrote:if you have a speedo, it should be around or slightly below the 1 (1,000)

I think you mean tach.

And I would wait for the engine to warm up so that the engine revs come down to normal. Which will be about 900 for a manual and about 600 for an auto.

Yeah, that too.

As for the RPM, do the auto's really idle that low?
That's very low for a 4 banger. I've never had an auto J-body, so I wouldn't know that.

As far as the 900/1,000 diff, I'd say you're cutting hairs with our tachs' accuracy.

my auto does idle that low and sometimes lower, it has been idling low enough you give it gas to go and it dies unless you are very light on it then it runs great.

i have a 2.2 eco automatic and i've never had any problem with it dying it idles right around 500,550,600 somewhere in there and the second the light turns green and i give it gas the needle instantly shoots up past 2,000 and in some cases goes almost to what seems like 4 before it kicks into second gear and the needle comes back down. Also on mine and is probably the same way on all the autos until my temp gauge reaches 195 the rpms stay high over 40 mph, when the engine is warmed up once i hit 40 mph which is 4th gear or so i have been told the rpms will drop way back.