Bob Moore's Coding Tips

MX5 Lockwood Replacement Dials

You'll get instructions with the kit, and a good set of pointers from www.donutz.co.uk One important point to note is that you can push TOO hard when refitting the pointers - I did, and was alarmed to find that my oil pressure gauge1 wasn't moving. I'd pushed the pointer back so hard it was rubbing against the face :-). 

The trickiest part is cutting the needle stops off the old dials (you need a thin craft knife of the X-Acto type) and fitting them to the new ones. They fit in with a satisfying "click", then you super-glue the cut backs on again. I was dreading that part, but it was actually much easier than expected. The only trick is to do the cutting job on a big white sheet, because when you cut the back off the needle, it tends to go "ping" and end up in the carpet :-(

All in all it wasn't as bad a job as I expected, about two hours elapsed time, and 30 minutes of that was (a) getting the binnacle off and (b) waiting for sundry glue to dry. The only down side with the Lockwood dials is that the illumination isn't as even as the stock units, though it's not too bad.

1. The oil pressure gauge on the MK2 isn't a gauge at all, just a needle version of the usual idiot light. It only has two positions : OK and ABOUT TO SEIZE :-)

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