Repairing loose travel indicator hand and ordering starrett replacement parts

[guythatbrews]

I have a Starrett 25-441 1" travel indicator with a loose needle. Unless the contact point returns to at-rest position pretty slow the needle will creep around the face of the dial at each return. The needle is crimped to the needle hub and the crimp is broken allowing the needle to creep.

I was gonna cobble it back together with some epoxy but first checked on repalcement parts with Starrett. I was pleasantly surprised to find parts are very reasonable and customer service very helpful. The needle was $4.20 and a new crystal was $4.20. Seems a lot of parts are $4.20 go figure. There is a very reasonable $8.95 service fee on top of the shipping. Ordered parts for another indicator while I was at it.

 

[Rowan]

Apologies for this resurrection, but I'm dealing with this same problem on a Mitutoyo, how difficult was the replacement process on this?

 

[guythatbrews]

It wasn't too bad. The starrett has a hole in the side of the knurled ring that holds the crystal. You have to put a pin in that hole and push in to depress the spring clip that holds the crystal on. Then lift the crystal assembly off starting by that pin. Not sure how MIT works.

I used this tool to remove the hand.

Watch Hand Remover Tool... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07F8R5ST1?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

It took a bit of force and seems like I had to thin the tangs on the tool down a bit.

It took a bit of force to install the new hand. I had to tap it on but everything works ok.