Haha I know what you mean by blinding blue LEDs. The blue lighting in the new Sonata drives me crazy at night.
There's no problem removing the needle. As for calibration, the motor is like a stepper motor, and it is simple in construction. I manage to reassemble the gear assembly for the tach when the shaft slipped out. Just keep the gears clean because there's thin lubricant on the gears. The gears have an internal stopper that keeps the needle from going 360 deg.
When putting the needle back in, just push it back in and turn it counter clockwise. The resistance is felt when hitting the stopper in the gear, so give it enough force to nudge the needle towards the 0 mark. There's no need to pull the needle back out if you miss the 0 mark, simply turn it towards the 0 mark again.
There's no need to drive or recalibrate it as long as your 0 mark placement is good.
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