S Meter Screws

A word of caution: Do not practice putting the light-bulb into the hole in the back of the meter, even if it has a good grommet. It falls through into the meter. You have to take the entire meter apart to get it out. Don't ask me how I came to know this. One of my meters had the broken remains of a bulb bouncing around in it.

What this is is self explanatory. What isn't is that the nuts go under the little brackets and the screws go through the panel in a vain attempt to hit the little nut that has since moved. I have not attempted this yet and I'm wondering how I'm going to hold the nut while I tighten the screw.

Don't do this unless you absolutely must. I did it because I needed a scanned image of the plate so I can make nice new clean plates from mylar.

Attach back panel to meter movement
Screw A (4 pieces) goes through hole B and screws into stud C. Repeat for other stud.

The screw needs three insulating bits.
White: outside. Black: inside. Ring: in the hole between the two. Most of the meters I looked were missing one or both of the rings.

Attach to meter - backing plate assembly to the housing:

Mount the housing and the bezel to the front panel

Use the flat head screw (center) to attach the bezel to the front of the front panel. Screw goes to top of bezel. Flat head required.
Use one of the two screws (without nut in picture) to attach the meter to the bezel through a hole in the front panel. Start with the hole closest to the center of the radio.
This is awkward with slotted screws. For MY build, I want to use Phillips head. I searched the thousands of screws in my parts bins and _could_not_ find anything that matches these screws. Is it 4-48? 4-40? I don't know. I ordered a small screw gauge to find out. TO DO update with size. Screw length is critical.
Add the second screw through the meter housing into the bezel. Use the hole closest to the side of the radio.
Finally, use the screw and nut through the hole at the top of the meter.

I write it up this way because you can wiggle the housing around while you attempt to get the first screw started. Another method might be to put the nut and screw through the top hole first and let the meter housing hang as it's supposed to be.

The 2nd method worked without too much pain.

The wires that go to the meter are polarized plus and minus.

Page: /Screws/S_meter/S_meter_screw_list.shtml

Last modified: Friday, 24 Apr 2026