[stuarth]

Damping doesn't make the needle stop in the wrong place, it just causes it to settle more slowly.

Stiffness in the pivots could cause the needle to settle in a different place depending on whether the applied voltage (or current, or resistance) was moving slowly upwards or slowly downwards. Such stiffness could be caused by dirty or over tight pivots, but if the meter has had physical shocks, one or other of the pivot pins could have popped out of its little cup.


Dirt in the gap between the moving coil and the core/magnet could cause the needle to stick at some parts of the scale. So could problems with the hair springs.

A static charge on the meter glass can cause erratic behaviour, but is easily checked by breathing on the glass to steam it up.

Does any of these behaviours match your meter?