I took my dash pad off and pulled my cluster to replace the failed gears in the odometer.

When the face came off the gauges, I did not remember to note where the boost needle pointed.

At rest, with the car shut off, where does the needle point?

In the middle, to the vacuum side?

Thanks! Would like to re-assemble the cluster and reinstall so I can drive again

 

Dead center

 

The white outlined side is vacuum and the solid side is boost.
When the engine is off, which do you have ??

 

That was my assumption, that it should be centered, but I wanted a sanity check, it was a fair amount of work to get the cluster out, and its a project I'd rather not repeat unless necessary.

On other vehicles I've had, some gauges have dropped the needle when the engine is shut off. My car still has a half tank of gas when shut off, but the needle isn't sitting at 1/2, it's all the way to the left. Once I turn the car on accessory, the sender gets a signal and lifts it back up to half.

Most people I've found here have been helpful. I'll pay it forward, helping others and passing along knowledge. I keep cars for long times, and while I'm not a master on this subject, I can promise you that I will be before I am done.

I buy products from Forum Sponsors. I donate to several forums I am a member of. I've been a moderator, super moderator and even admin on other automotive sites I've been on.

Maybe I don't know you well enough, maybe I've had an off day, but the sarcasm sure doesn't make me feel welcome here!

 

If you want to be helpful, hand me the wrench.

 

Smh...John...he's just having fun...don't take it personally. Hopefully you got it fixed.

 

It got me thinking about it and I had to go check:



Yep: hard to see at the bottom, but mine points at 0 when the engine is off as well.

 

It's just one of those things. On any other gauge I'd have to go out and look and if it was electrical it could freeze wherever it was at shutdown, drop to the bottom of it's travel or slowly drop to wherever. Even a mechanical gauge I'd go check as it might drop to the bottom of it's travel or only to the minimum reading on the face or sit down on a "stop" peg sticking out of the gauges face.

A mechanical vacuum/boost gauge is the only gauge I can tell you where it sits at rest without getting off my butt and looking. Unless it's broken it will always return to center as the "guts" will force it there. If it was an electrical aftermarket gauge I wouldn't be able to give an answer without looking or researching.

It wasn't a dumb question and it's always easier to check your work before you reassemble something than find out once it's all put together! I can't even begin to count the times I've assembled C, D and E only to see part B laying there
I sent Johnwartr a PM apologizing for the "poke" but honestly a little thicker skin wouldn't hurt either.
And personally I don't see anything wrong with making someone think about what it is they are working on. But, that's just me.

 

When I first bought my 850 the gauge was horizontal or all the way to the left past the white area. When I started the car it would move up into the white area...clearly off.

Turned out that the needle is simply pressed on in the cluster. After pulling the cluster I was able to pull the needle off and reposition it back into place (w/ a little locktite) and its been fine ever since.