What is inside a Veglia Tach

Hey I opened a Veglia Tach on my mk3 to see if I could rebuild. Was told that they are not fixable but was able to adjust RPM settings by removing and reinstalling the needle with the position rotated with a little more preload against the stop. You can’t easily adjust the air gap between the spinning magnet and aluminum plate like with a Smiths Tach to calibrate. So don’t throw out your Veglia gages if they are reading way off. They might be salvagable. Pictures attached.

What a timely post. I just opened up my Veglia, that appears to have suffered some damage in a fall. Not exactly sure what is going on as it just spins all over the place. Spring is in tact, and it appears as if it should work. I have a spare working Veglia next to it with a weather worn face, that I was hoping to use for parts, but I am not sure that is needed.

maaseyracer said:

What a timely post. I just opened up my Veglia, that appears to have suffered some damage in a fall. Not exactly sure what is going on as it just spins all over the place. Spring is in tact, and it appears as if it should work. I have a spare working Veglia next to it with a weather worn face, that I was hoping to use for parts, but I am not sure that is needed.

Click to expand...

Grease everything . Every moving part. Not near the bezel or glass .

Hey Masseyracer,
Use a drill running in reverse to check. Sounds like the spring is not doing its job.

baldy said:

Hey Masseyracer,
Use a drill running in reverse to check. Sounds like the spring is not doing its job.

Click to expand...

A little tension added back to the spring got it working!!! The issue now is calibration. I am not exactly sure how to achieve this, but I have a couple ideas that are going to take me some time to figure out. My hurdle is that I have resistor wires with my CNW coil and that is not letting my timing light give me an accurate rpm. I am going to need to change my plug wires and caps to get this sorted properly, which then means I need to figure out a new spark plug as well. I might do that temporarily as the tune i have is finally working well. Either that or find a timing light that works with resistor wires better.

I use a drill that I calibrate using a harbor freight strobe tach tool. Then you multiply by 4.

Address the fact that grease dries out eventually.
The teensy - weensy bearings and Veglia exit shaft needs re-greasing periodically .
No advice on this available publicly . That's why instrument rebuilder services are quiet.
You need to remove the bezel and glass , then grease up things again , hopefully not dry toasted bits , then fit a new glass and bezel kit.
You likely will crack or shatter the glass without the proper can opener tool.
The glass is VERY thin and delicate and unforgiving to mistakes.
Calibrations I know nothing about , so good luck.
Enjoy.

I have one set of Veglia clocks for my '79 Triumph. When the service I was using in Illinois closed so that the owner/technician Scott Thomas could retire; he did offer to do one more set, but when I told him they were Veglias' , he said, no. I asked him why and he said they were made to be replaced, not rebuilt; his thought was that NVT asked that they be made as inexpensive as possible. I have owned 3 Ducatis with Veglia clocks and was always impressed at how smooth they reported their data, go figure?

I am aware that Joel Levine has his detractors, but he has done 2 Norton , 2 Triumph, 2 BSA and 2 BMW instruments for me and each with excellent results; not the least expensive, nor the most expensive. Joel will rebuild Veglia instruments or, at least was doing; it's been over 2 years since I used his service. He does Chronometrics.

If you decide to use his service, treat him with respect and don't call frequently with time consuming (dumb?) questions you will get along fine; keep in mind that he is the expert, not you.


Best.