Airguide speedometer bezel help

[kpickett]

I've got two old airguide speedos from my Sanger that work very well. The airguides on my '94 MC aren't terribly good. I want to swap out the guts from the Sanger ones into the MC ones. I've taken apart the old ones, but I can't get the black plastic bezel off of the MC speedos. Anyone know how to do it? I don't want to risk breaking the plastic.

Thanks for the help.

KWP

[sfitzgerald351]

What do you mean by bezel? I've got two old airguides on my 1984 that are still BANG ON accurate after all these years, but I would like to take off the lens and clean the inside because they are really dirty inside and look like junk at the moment.

[kpickett]

The bezel is the black ring that holds the lens on. It also holds all of the mechanism inside. The ring seems to be glued on, or perhaps held on by friction. I'd like to get it off without breaking it. I know people have worked on the mechanism - anyone know how to get to it?

[stevoh20]

I've had luck by grabbing a rubberized jar lid opening device and simply twisting until the glue bond is broken. The rubber jar opener allows you to get the torque without gouging the soft metal. I've done this with three airguide speedo's without damaging them. Any ideas were to get new lenses? One of mine is fogged and the other is chedk with cracks.

[kpickett]

I've had luck by grabbing a rubberized jar lid opening device and simply twisting until the glue bond is broken. The rubber jar opener allows you to get the torque without gouging the soft metal. I've done this with three airguide speedo's without damaging them. Any ideas were to get new lenses? One of mine is fogged and the other is chedk with cracks.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! That worked beautifully. I used the rubber jar opener that doubles as my oil filter wrench. Did you put glue on when you closed them back up?

I'm not sure where to get new lenses. I've seen some pro-shops that still have some spare parts floating around. You might ask around.

[H20skeefreek]

steveoh20, I would imagine that any glass shop could cut you new lenses.

sfitzgerald351, I think we have the same speedos. Our front bezel just slips off, then you take a wooden pencil with an eraser, use the eraser end and push from the back. push the speedo face against the glass, untill the glass pops out. make sure you don't touch any of the stuff in the back and damage it.

I popped mine out, cleaned the glass, polished the faces, and used model paint to repaint the faded needle. I also added a nice touch and colored the hash mark at 36mph red, just like a car's is at 55.

I'm going to take them back apart and spray the inside of the housing with gloss black. The originals had a black vinyl tape ring to cover the void between the housing and the face, so I need to paint the housing or get a new vinyl ring. Also, some of those waterspots are 20 years old, I need to work on those more, but they'll just come back.

Here is the before:

[H20skeefreek]

and the after:

[sfitzgerald351]

Wow, your before pictures look WAY better than mine look. And the after look awesome.

So I need to take the whole speedo out of the dash pod to do this? I can't just take the bezel off and then pry the glass off?

[sfitzgerald351]

Another thing. What's the little button on the bottom of the gauge for? Mine seems to be broken off, but doesn't move in any direction (in/out or rotation) from what I can tell.

[AirJunky]

It's for calibrating your speedos, Scott. They should spin & move the needle. Get yourself a GPS unit on board, open the boat up to a typical speed that you ski & set your speedos to exactly what your GPS says. I do it once a year or so & they don't usually need much adjustment.

[H20skeefreek]

Wow, your before pictures look WAY better than mine look. And the after look awesome.

So I need to take the whole speedo out of the dash pod to do this? I can't just take the bezel off and then pry the glass off?
I thought about prying the glass out, but was afraid I'd break it. I already had the pod apart b/c I was replacing my other gauges.

the button on the bottom is to calibrate the speedos. I use my left one for wakeboarding (slower speeds) I run my speed based upon the GPS, then calibrate, then do the same for slalom. If I'm gonna be slaloming only for a few weeks or so, I tune them both for slalom, even though I end up using the GPS anyway.

[Brn85ss]

I thought about prying the glass out, but was afraid I'd break it. I already had the pod apart b/c I was replacing my other gauges.

the button on the bottom is to calibrate the speedos. I use my left one for wakeboarding (slower speeds) I run my speed based upon the GPS, then calibrate, then do the same for slalom. If I'm gonna be slaloming only for a few weeks or so, I tune them both for slalom, even though I end up using the GPS anyway.


Love to see a pic. of your new gauges in the dash pod. Just put all new gauges in mine also.

[sfitzgerald351]

I originally thought they were to calibrate the gauge, but like I said, it's broken off on both and I couldn't get mine to turn. But I did run the boat with the GPS a few years back and the speed was bang on (to my disbelief) at 30 mph so I didn't worry about it anymore. I'm definitely going to clean them up this summer and then I'll see about replacing the adjustment rod thingy so I can calibrate again.

[H20skeefreek]

here you go. I eventually want to buy the white faced airguides that are always on ebay, or there is a guy online that has some white faced Sammy Duvall edition airguides, but the $$ is kinda high.

My new fuel gauge doesn't work, and I still can't figure out why, but I like all of the rest.

Kpicket, sorry to hijack this thread....do you have a picture of the gauges you have, maybe we can figure out how to dissassemble them?

[stevoh20]

If they are loose and spin freely, I would place a small amount of epoxy to hold them in place. I did not place too much so I could get at them and service them. I think you could leave the speedo in the dash if all you want to do is service the lens. However, If you want to do more, you will need to take it out for disassembly and reassembly. There's not much to be serviced behind there. I must have had a previous owner have some water freeze in the diaphram which caused a small split. That all she wrote. I had water leaking in the boat from all the pressure that works up that line. I found used replacements on Ebay. They were off a Supra but same vintage. Didn't say Mastercraft, But I'm probably the only one that notices. It's my rearward facing speedo so the seat is in front of it many times. Finding an Airguide Pitot with a nearly round base is nearly impossible, so if you see them, hang on to them or pick up a spare. I have notches in the hull of my Barefoot 200 and other manufacture's bases will not fit in the notches, only Airguide. I repaired one myself, out of despiration.

Thanks for the glass shop suggestion. My lens was plastic and that is why it checked.

[sfitzgerald351]

I wish I had a garage so I could go work on them right now!!!! :rant:

No work is getting done until I unwrap in the spring...

[Brn85ss]

here you go. I eventually want to buy the white faced airguides that are always on ebay, or there is a guy online that has some white faced Sammy Duvall edition airguides, but the $$ is kinda high.

My new fuel gauge doesn't work, and I still can't figure out why, but I like all of the rest.

Kpicket, sorry to hijack this thread....do you have a picture of the gauges you have, maybe we can figure out how to dissassemble them?
Looks great! I went with black faced euro style,(Faria brand)I'll post some pics when I finish the whole dash this spring.
sorry about the hijack Kpicket! have you thought about having a instrument company rebuild your speedo's?

[kpickett]

Looks great! I went with black faced euro style,(Faria brand)I'll post some pics when I finish the whole dash this spring.
sorry about the hijack Kpicket! have you thought about having a instrument company rebuild your speedo's?

No problem on the hijack. I was able to get the speedos apart. They still work fine. It's just that I've noticed that they aren't as accurate across the range of speeds as my old ones. For some reason my other airguides seem better. I tried to swap out the mechanisms last night, but they aren't a direct fit. I'll have to do a little modifying to make them work. I can certainly live with the ones I've got.

Thanks,

Kyle

[sfitzgerald351]

Okay... so I've tried to get my bezel off so I can clean the inside of my speedo lene, but for the life of me I can't get it off... I've tried the rubber jar opener and twisting and I've even pried a little bit with a screw driver, but it seems like I'll just break it. Any other suggestions? I'm assuming the lens stays put and the bezel just comes off separately?

Thanks!