I popped back in the garage this afternoon for some gentle dashboard work. Or gauges, if you prefer. But today of course was one of those days where if anything was going to go wrong, it would. Allow me to elaborate.
The rev counter I now have has no needle on it. I figured I could easily fix it by removing the speedo needle from the clocks I already have. SO out came my gentle plastic trim removal tools and I started gently persuading it out. It was very tight and very stubborn. Eventually, it gave up and let go. Or so I thought. Nope, it had snapped the little prong that the needle sits on. Great.
I managed to get the prong out of the needle with some gentle work with some needle nose pliers, then set about putting it on to the rev counter. And I ran into yet another issue. At some stage Austin / Austin Rover / The Rover Group or whatever they were called that week had changed their design oh so slightly. The outside diameter of the old-style needle? 3mm. The diameter of the hole it had to go into in the newer-style clocks? Yup, 2mm. I thought I would be clever and gently file it down using a needle file (geddit?!). Did this work? Nope. All it did was collapsed the plastic so now I can't use it at all. It was at this point that I shut the garage door and walked away.
Anyone got a 90s Cooper-style rev counter going cheap?
Rev counter came without a needle
So I thought I would be clever, and use the needle from my other speedo. Instead I broke bits and got frustrated.