Dial caliper fail

OH CRAP, I FIXED IT!

plugging around the internet, I found a starrett site that described the movement and mentioned spring preload. Soooo, I delved back into the HF clone (I think they are all the same style movement) and removed the face again to expose the 3 mounting screws. Remove them and **** the movement up on the right side so the pinion is free of the rack but the left pinion is still engaged. now rotate the hand CW (I think) a few turns until you feel some tension. You should see the left gear turning indipendently of its bottom gear through the little holes. This is the preload tension that keeps the indicator needle biased toward one side for repeatability! The pinion gears mesh on a common dial gear but the left pinion (closest to the jaws) is on a clockspring to the gear so you can wind up the pinion independent of the gear. Once you get the dial preload wound up, push the indicator CAREFULLY back flush into the rack so both gears are now engaged on the rack. DONT MOVE THE INDICATOR until you set at least one of the 3 mounting screws back in or the indicators gears (now under tension) will slip on the rack and unload. Put all 3 screws back in and put the dial hand back on and move the jaws off and onto zero to see if the needle returns to the same spot. you can also feel if the needle feels loose on the shaft, Its never loose, you are feeling the clock spring tension OR LACK OF IT! Put it all back together...blamo! It zeroes 100% of the time now with no needle play! I think Ill still get me a metric dial indicator......