I want to move a Canadian metric speedo faceplate over to my American import daily driver that has both miles and metric scales. The metric faceplate is much less cluttered looking because it does not have a miles scale on it. And I live in Canada and only need kilometers per hour on the scale. I don't want to move the whole gauge, just the faceplate if possible. (The odo will say "kilometers" but will really be showing a number that is "miles" but I don't care.) There is no need to do this for import rules or anything... I just want the cleaner face look. Plus I think my current speedo error is off by as much as 10%. So I can correct that at the same time using a GPS to calibrate is good enough for me.

From a salvage car I got the metric faceplate off OK, pulling the needle, two screws.. and there you have it. Comparing the plates, they both have the same full scale reading in kilometers per hour. But the metric plate's whole scale is rotated a bit counter clockwise. It seems to me that setting the needle back on its pin slightly rotated in the same direction will make up for that. Seem reasonable?

Also, key question, what is the normal procedure for placing the needle in the correct position when putting a faceplate back on? I notice if you "jump" the needle over the zero-stopper the spring drops it further past the stop. It settles out in a spot that is ??? mysteriously calibrated to be the normal relaxed point. I notice on the MPH scale faceplate, there is a painted tick mark which may be the spot that says "hey place the needle here"... Is this the case? I'd assume the tick mark on the metric faceplate may be a smidgen different, to accomodate for the shift in the scale.

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Cheers!
Scott McPhee

1987 300D