jpowell1
New member
- Joined
- Mar 30, 2007
I recently bought a 52mm VDO 5-bar oil pressure gauge and 5-bar sender at a good price from another tbricker. However, somehow our fine men and women of the United States Postal Service used their Sith powers to break the needle inside the gauge during shipping. Wow. I needed to get the gauge apart to superglue the needle back together. Here are a few pictures describing the process. Thanks to the other board members who described the disassembly process to me.
1. Here are the most important tools I used, a small flat-bladed screwdriver and a curved pick. The pick was from Harbor Freight, $10 for a set.
2. Here is the gauge as it arrived. It was fine when shipped and it had obviously never been opened, so I have no idea how USPS managed to do that. I wanted to fix the needle and wipe off the rust.
3. This was the only kind of annoying part. This screwdriver wasn't thin enough to slip under the metal, and one that is may be too small to pry the metal up. I kind of kept gouging into the plastic gauge body until I could get under the metal lip with this screwdriver.
4. This was the goal for me, to get some kind of access point for the pick. This is what it looked like.
5. Then I used the pick like this. I was able to get pretty good leverage by twisting the pick, and I worked all the way around the gauge two or three times. That got the metal bezel out enough from the gauge body that I could go to step 6.
6. The big screwdriver. Something wide and flat, just keep working around and around. Eventually this step will get the bezel bent out enough that you can pull the outer bezel off. The place on the bottom of the gauge where there is the little plastic guide piece, just get as close to it as you can. That's the only place the bezel may be a little grabby coming off.
7. Here are all the parts. There is an outer bezel, the glass (mine was plastic or really, really felt like plastic), then an inner bezel, and the gauge itself. And that little piece of the needle.
8. From right to left, this is the gauge assembly. Gauge body, then the inner bezel, then the glass, then the outer bezel.
9. Here is the gauge with the needle glued back together. I used a straight pick and my finger to scrape away the rust. It looked better.
10. I used a Sharpie to color the inner and outer bezel where the paint was rusted away or chipped off. No, that's not the best match. If you really wanted to do it right, you'd paint it, but I just don't care. Here is the gauge reassembled. It looks much nicer now.
You just reverse the disassembly process. After you get the outer bezel back on, just bend it back where you bent it out for disassembly. I used a flat-blade screwdriver; you can probably use something that doesn't mar it as much. Again, I didn't really care that much.
One cautionary note. I put this back together within minutes of doing the superglue. You can't really see it in this picture, but the glue fumes hazed the clear plastic just a little on the inside of the gauge right next to where the dab of glue was. To avoid this, just let the glue cure a little longer. I'm guessing an hour would be fine, or leave it until the next morning. I didn't really care that much, but it may be important to you.
You can also use Novus plastic polisher or some whitening toothpaste or something to try and polish out the scratches in the plastic if you want. I just washed it in the
11. I give this the thumbs up.
If you have any edits or comments, please add them in there. I'm sure there's stuff I missed. Thanks!
1. Here are the most important tools I used, a small flat-bladed screwdriver and a curved pick. The pick was from Harbor Freight, $10 for a set.
2. Here is the gauge as it arrived. It was fine when shipped and it had obviously never been opened, so I have no idea how USPS managed to do that. I wanted to fix the needle and wipe off the rust.
3. This was the only kind of annoying part. This screwdriver wasn't thin enough to slip under the metal, and one that is may be too small to pry the metal up. I kind of kept gouging into the plastic gauge body until I could get under the metal lip with this screwdriver.
4. This was the goal for me, to get some kind of access point for the pick. This is what it looked like.
5. Then I used the pick like this. I was able to get pretty good leverage by twisting the pick, and I worked all the way around the gauge two or three times. That got the metal bezel out enough from the gauge body that I could go to step 6.
6. The big screwdriver. Something wide and flat, just keep working around and around. Eventually this step will get the bezel bent out enough that you can pull the outer bezel off. The place on the bottom of the gauge where there is the little plastic guide piece, just get as close to it as you can. That's the only place the bezel may be a little grabby coming off.
7. Here are all the parts. There is an outer bezel, the glass (mine was plastic or really, really felt like plastic), then an inner bezel, and the gauge itself. And that little piece of the needle.
8. From right to left, this is the gauge assembly. Gauge body, then the inner bezel, then the glass, then the outer bezel.
9. Here is the gauge with the needle glued back together. I used a straight pick and my finger to scrape away the rust. It looked better.
10. I used a Sharpie to color the inner and outer bezel where the paint was rusted away or chipped off. No, that's not the best match. If you really wanted to do it right, you'd paint it, but I just don't care. Here is the gauge reassembled. It looks much nicer now.
You just reverse the disassembly process. After you get the outer bezel back on, just bend it back where you bent it out for disassembly. I used a flat-blade screwdriver; you can probably use something that doesn't mar it as much. Again, I didn't really care that much.
One cautionary note. I put this back together within minutes of doing the superglue. You can't really see it in this picture, but the glue fumes hazed the clear plastic just a little on the inside of the gauge right next to where the dab of glue was. To avoid this, just let the glue cure a little longer. I'm guessing an hour would be fine, or leave it until the next morning. I didn't really care that much, but it may be important to you.
You can also use Novus plastic polisher or some whitening toothpaste or something to try and polish out the scratches in the plastic if you want. I just washed it in the
11. I give this the thumbs up.
If you have any edits or comments, please add them in there. I'm sure there's stuff I missed. Thanks!
