offchops

Bugger. If only I'd seen that two days ago! The "calibration" trick of reading tacho readings before and after was a good one. I just basically winged it, after I realised how easily the pin spins around messing you up - I went around the block then turned ignition off, to try to get a zero position. Placed the needle on speedo, did another block, "feeling" where gear changes were and what 40, 60 felt and sounded like. Re adjusted, did the block again, etc til I was pretty happy with it. Just went on a long run today, checking my speedo against traffic at diff speed limits, and I seem to be pretty spot on. Now I'm just on the lookout for one of those portable speed check signs they park on suburban streets to tell you you're going too fast. Then I'll have a great time going round and round at diff speeds! Thanks for your post though, good step by step.

In case anyone else is looking for instructions on this, it was pretty easy. You have to remove the casing around the steering wheel, and drop it to it's lowest level. Then there are about five screws under the shade lip of the console, three in front of the speed etc, one under the rear demister button, one under the hazards button. The you can pretty easily pull that whole surround out. Once you've done that, there are only five screws holding the "glass" perspex in front of the instruments. Undo these and you can easily pull the needles off, use a hairdryer to slowly (otherwise they will snap) bend them back (or replace them). The only problem then is putting them back on accurately!

Sorry to re-animate this thread, but I've just got myself a 1988 Camry with the same problems. How easy is it to replace the needles? Has anyone seen any step by step instructions around for doing this? Apparently you can still get a needle replacement kit from Toyota.