HELP! Anybody who knows how gauges work!

[Konstantin Bogach]

I was inside the temp gauge.  Definitly somebody played with needle. And I
know who it was - my 2 years old daughter.  I took her seconds before she lost
interest. Nobody saw it.
It is fixed now.. By the way I can explain what I saw just as
bimetallicU-shaped strip with wound wire around one leg which servse as a
heater, I think. But I never heard about such kind of gauge construction.
Heater inside the gauge? Hmm.  From other hand I can not find any other
physics inside the gauge.  If I am wrong  then I overestimated my knowledge of
physics.  I would appreciate if someone prove it in this case.

Speedo needle was overturn and not being able to take the needle off I just
forced it in oposite direction and it rotated on the shaft. Now it starts on 0
and goes all the way up.

Sorry for panic posts.

Konstantin Bogach.

Konstantin Bogach wrote:

> I used very little of contact enhancer taking off excess of it. I used it
> only on pin connections. I did not put IC back into car because I found
> those strange things before I completed assemblying IC.  I think that
> something happend to mechanical part in coolant temp gauge(needle does not
> move if I push it) and speedo's needle looks like is overturn.  There is
> very little chance that my kids touched it when I left my desk unattended
> for couple of minutes. I thought it is little. But now I am more and more
> unsure.
> How is needle fixed to the pin?  Should it come off when I pull it?
>
> Thank you.
>
> Konstantin Bogach.
>
> Kevin Phillips wrote:
>
> > >I disassembled instrument cluster(IC), cleaned all contacts, used
> > >deoxIT and ProGold
> >
> > Be carefull with the contact enhancer in the IC. There are some very
> > small signals in it that could be persuaded to take the wrong route
> > with too liberal an application. I would clean most of it off, make
> > sure there is none between pins, sockets and tracks. The only bad
> > connections I had in mine were the 4 pins to the speedo itself.
> >
> > When looking over a circuit board for bad connections, you need to
> > consentrate on large/heavy/hot components and all conections as they
> > are subject to strain and vibration.
> > Also, now you have handled the IC so much I would double check all the
> > lamps. You might take an over-dose of deoxit if you find them not
> > running after all this !!!!!!, that is if the cat did not beat you to
> > it.
> > Kev the Brit
> >
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