Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications General Mods reset gauges

i replaced the old gauges with new white face gauges from the classifeds. after i installed them all the gauges are reading incorrectly. i need to know if their is a way to reset them and how. i had to pull the needles off to change the faces. the worst one that is off the the speedo. when the key is on the on position it reads at 20 mph but the car is not moving. when you put car in gear it jumps to about 30 mph. please help me if you can so that i don't get a speeding ticket and my wife won't yell at me!!!!!!!!! thanks in advance for help cb from ny

What I did for my speedo was, took off the clear "shield" in front of the gauges, and plugged in everything in the back. Then I put the key to the "accessories" position and let the temp gauge and all the other gauges go about their course to the incorrect place. Then I CAREFULLY(make sure not to move the little pin that the needles rest on) removed the needles and put them back in thier correct places. Now if your tach is off you can start the car and do the same thing, normal idle is at about 700 RPM. Hope this helps

I did the same except I grabbed the needle with some bent needle nose pliers and then put the needles on.

this is what i did. i left all the needles on but ended up have to remove the speedo needle. putting the car to accessory did nothing for me. i started the car. the car must be at 0 when not moving. with your left hand hold the bottom of the needle on the rest point and with the right hand pplug the needle in. it should now be at 0. i did this and mine is perfect. test it on the hwy. find the mile markers. set your cruise to 60mph. it should take u 1 minute to reach the next mile marker.

my temp is perfect. it goes up to the center of the "r". my tach is now sticking, i'm going to have to pull it and completely tape down the back, i taped a little the first time and it was fine. also most would agree that 750 is idle rpm.

i topped off my fuel and my needle only went up to past 1/4 so it must be sticking. supposedly it'll level itself for obvious reasons. mine didn't or its sticking. i had to redo the speedo and completely covered the back w/ doublesided tape. it now works perfectly.

so i gotta correct the tach and fuel. other than that,i love it. putting on the needles one handed i found it would jump when u took your hand away. the 2 hand way i said seemed to work great. so i'm gonna let the car run for 15 minutes to warm up, there the needle i'll put at 750 rpm and the temp should be at center of "r" if i dont end up removing it.

then drive to gas station with clear cover off, refill to max and remount the fuel needle to full. drive home carefully and reassemble.

thank for all the help fixed the tour today after work. i stop on the way home a fill the tank to max also reset trip so i would not take the change of run out pulled the gauges out the tach was ok temp was only to the "O" so i moved that up to the "r" the car was still warm from the drive home. fuel was a little off. but the speedo was a "pita" i pulled the needle off i did the 2 hand thing it jump back up to the 20 mph make what i finale did was pull the needle stop off a let the needle drop than put the stop under the needle and put it back in with the 2 hand way it work great the wife likes the look of them. thank to all that rep.