Atari disassemble

Since I have access to various plex's and lens materials , I would like to remove the lens from my ATARI, digitize and cut it out on the router. My current lens is fogged from age.

I could start unscrewing things and such but I was wondering if someone knows of a guide that I can reference.

 

I don't know of a guide but disassembly is fairly straightforward.

With the gauge cluster off of the bike.

1. Remove the black JIS head screws on the back of the cluster to remove the back cover panel.

2. Remove the zinc plated 10mm nuts to remove the mounting bracket.

3. Remove the (6?) zinc plated JIS head screws from the cluster housing, and unplug the bullet connectors for the check, and reset switches.

4. Carefully pop the front (black side) of the cluster off of the rear (white) side of the cluster. Spreading one side of the front with finger pressure, and working you way around should be sufficient, but you may need to use a flat prying tool to get the case halves to release (be careful, there is a gasket that can tear easily).

5. Removing the lens is a bit of a trick. The metal gaude bezel is held in to the front cover by blobs of plastic that have been melted. The glass is sandwitched between the metal bezel and the front cover. You can either carefully cut the plasic with a dremel tool, or melt it out of the way with a soldering iron (use a tip that you will never use for anything else again). Replacement can be accomplished by either re-melting the plastic (adding filler if needed), or using the adhesive of your choice (epoxy, RTV, anything sufficiently durable and tacky).

Your current lens (it's glass, unless someone already replaced it) is likely fogged from the gasket between the case halves failing. It may just need to be cleaned.

 

Cleaning is my first choice before replacement...

Thank you for the tips on disassemble!

 

Also - remove the rust and respray the internal metal bezel/dividers black while it is apart.

 

I realize I'm necroposting, but I haven't been on here for a while and I'm playing a bit of catchup. Anyway, see if this does anything for you:

Gauge Cluster Breakdown

 

Wow thanks!

 

Old post but looking for help on restoring an Atari that has rust present on the gauge bezel.

I see the metal bezel, the gasket, and guides for the plastic piece that sits atop of the metal bezel, but nowhere do I see any "blobs" that could be cut or melted to remove the metal bezel, or the plastic retainer that sits atop the metal bezel. Hopefully with the picture you can point me in the right direction. Also, I have a couple of these, and it sure seems like the lens is plastic and not glass??

 

From my experience any plastic lenses were either late in the run, or replacements. I've accidentally broken two glass lenses so far.
Each one of the round circles are the blobs that I wrote about. That's where the retainer was fusion welded to the frame.
The example that I originally worked on had already been disassembled (unbeknownst to me) and I never went back to rewrite that post after I became aware of the difference.

 

Maybe I am confused by using the Dremel tool as I visualized a cutoff wheel doing the job? So there are like 30 round circles with 3 different sizes, is the goal to release each one of those by melting at that point or perhaps drilling that point?

 

OK, so it went OK with no broken parts. I used the tool in the picture along with a medium sized flat blade to carefully pop the retainer loose. I started on the lower left where the retainer is the widest. The two sides are the worst because they are thin and getting the tool in there is difficult. Prying between the housing and retainer and the bezel and the retainer helped to loosen the sides. The lens taps kind of like plastic but suspect it is really glass as k-moe suggested.

 

Removing that retainer is about the most difficult operation I've come across on an XJ.
It's clear to me now that all of the spare ATARIs that I've worked on were worked on before they came to me, based on how your's looks with that retainer out.